Karachi, September 30, 2024 – The SITE Association of Industry (SAI) has urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to extend the deadline for filing income tax and sales tax returns by at least 15 days. This appeal comes after the FBR’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) experienced technical difficulties, leaving taxpayers unable to file their returns ahead of the September 30 deadline.
Muhammad Kamran Arbi, President of the SAI, along with Chief Coordinator Saleem Parekh, Senior Vice President Hanif Tawakkal, Vice President Farhan Ashrafi, and the entire Executive Committee, expressed concerns over the IRIS system being non-functional for the past three days. According to the SAI leadership, the system’s repeated outages have left registered taxpayers in a difficult position, unable to complete their filings on time.
“The system breakdown has led to widespread disruption,” said President Arbi. “Taxpayers across the country are facing delays, and their ability to file returns has come to a standstill. This situation is particularly concerning for Associations of Persons (AOPs) and individual filers who now fear being classified as ‘non-filers’ due to no fault of their own.”
The SAI officials emphasized that technical issues with the IRIS system have occurred repeatedly during peak filing periods, when the system is overwhelmed by heavy usage. Despite multiple instances of similar disruptions in previous years, the FBR has not taken adequate steps to improve the infrastructure or mitigate the impact on taxpayers.
“The inability of the IRIS system to handle high volumes of traffic has caused widespread inconvenience. It is unreasonable to expect taxpayers to bear the consequences of system failures, especially when the deadline is looming,” said Chief Coordinator Saleem Parekh. He further urged the FBR to take immediate action to resolve the issue and provide relief to taxpayers.
The SAI also expressed frustration over the FBR’s reluctance to extend the filing deadline in the face of such significant technical challenges. According to SAI members, failing to grant an extension would penalize genuine taxpayers who have been prevented from filing returns through no fault of their own.
In their statement, the SAI leadership called on the Finance Minister and the FBR to take swift action by extending the tax filing deadline by at least 15 days. They stressed that such a move would provide much-needed relief to taxpayers, allowing them to complete their returns without the risk of being classified as non-compliant.
The association’s demand reflects growing concern among the business community, which is eager to see immediate intervention to address these ongoing issues and ensure smooth tax filing processes moving forward.
