KARACHI: President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Iftikhar Ahmed Sheikh has requested the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to extend the last date for filing Income tax Returns by one month till October 31, 2024, so that maximum number of taxpayers could submit their returns.
In a statement issued, President KCCI said that the majority of business community members remained extensively engaged in the election’s activities of chambers of commerce and other trade bodies throughout Pakistan during September so they were unable to complete all mandatory documentation work required for submitting Income Tax Return, hence, the FBR must extend the last date for filing Income Tax Return by one more month as the deadline will be ending on September 30, 2024.
He further informed that several members of the Karachi Chamber on Wednesday complained that the IRIS portal for submitting income tax returns became inoperative in the morning and even when it became accessible to some extent, the portal was slow which triggered a lot of anxiety among taxpayers who were unable to update their data in the IRIS portal. “Every year when the last date for filing comes closer, we start receiving complaints about its malfunctioning and slowdown which needs to be addressed by enhancing the capacity of the IRIS system.”
He said that on one hand, the FBR was announcing to come up with stricter curbs on non-filers but on the other, the tax-collecting authority was not focusing on improving the efficiency and capacity of IRIS system which needs attention. “The system has to be simplified to such an extent that the taxpayers can submit returns on their own rather than hiring a tax consultant to carry out the task which is an additional expenditure”, he said, adding that the cumbersome procedures were one of the key reasons which discourage people to become filers.