KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on Thursday urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to extend the last date for filing of income tax return up to December 31, 2014 as issuance of rules and giving only 12 days to taxpayers for filing the return not justified.
Zakaria Usman, president, FPCCI in a statement strongly opposed imposition of new rules for filing tax return in and demanded to extend the last date for at least three months.
While expressing his views on imposition of new rules of FBR for filing the income tax return, he said, that at a time when taxpayers will have only less than 12 days to file tax return forms, the FBR has almost finalized the return form for the tax year 2014 which is not practically possible to follow for the tax payers.
He recalled that in the past also the FBR introduced new tax return forms many time but it had to take them back due to the reason that they did not take the apex body of business community into confidence. He recommended that FBR should get the consent of business community on the new rules for filing tax return before its implementation.
Usman further stated that the sit-in of AZADI and INQILAB MARCH have not yet yield fruitful result but in fact is ruining the country’s economy and has damaged the image of the country internationally. He said that due to panic and uncertainty prevailed in the country in the wake of political mobs at Islamabad and other cities and floods in all provinces, the business graph have been declined even the government and private offices in Islamabad are not working normally.
He also pointed out that in Punjab where the production of the industries and the business hours has been badly affected with severe load shedding of electricity. The cost of doing business is increasing day by day and the business community is depressed by such situation. The FBR rather giving them relaxation in filing of their tax returns, it is creating further problems for them. The new return form is so complicated and difficult to understand even by the tax practitioners than how common businessmen can fill it and submit tax return within the stipulated time frame. The FBR should harmonize the form and implement it from next year.
The President FPCCI also urged to settle the political issues peacefully and make the economy stable so that the businessmen can do business with peace of mind then they would be able to follow new rules of FBR. In the current scenario the business community feels insecure and doing limited business activities in the national as well as international levels.