ISLAMABAD: Despite two-month extension in filing tax returns, only 338 companies and 217,350 individuals have so far filed their tax returns.
The original deadline was set for Aug 31, which was extended to Sept 30 and then to Oct 31. Moreover, of the 3.3 million taxpayers registered with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), only one per cent have chosen to e-file their returns so far.
Last year, 1.1m taxpayers filed their returns. However, this number was achieved after the deadline was extended several times to April 2016.
Out of the 62,000 companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, 338 (0.5pc) have filed their tax returns so far. In contrast, 731 companies filed their tax returns during the comparable period a year earlier. For companies, the deadline for filing tax is Dec 31.
However, the number of taxpaying individuals has increased marginally to 217,350 from 216,472 a year ago. Besides, 8,730 returns were filed by association of persons this year as against 11,554 returns last year.
