KARACHI: President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Shamim Ahmed Firpo has requested the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to extend last date for filing of income tax return up to December 31, 2016.
In a statement issued, he pointed out that large number of KCCI members, while seeking assistance, stated that they were unable to file their returns by December 15, 2016 due to faulty online registration system, IRIS, which completely collapsed on last date due to massive load as large number of taxpayers were simultaneously filing sales tax, income tax returns under section 147 and monthly statement under section 165 of the Income Tax Ordinance, resulting in flopping the online system.
He said that the complications in the online system were not something new to taxpayers as every year, they have to face severe hardships, which not only frustrates them but was also one of the major reason behind the trust deficit between the genuine taxpayers and FBR.
He said that FBR should seriously focus on enhancing the capacity of its online system which was not even capable enough to deal with a meager number of less than 1 percent registered taxpayers who filed their Income Tax Returns in 2015, out of a huge population of more than 200 million.
Therefore, for the larger interest of revenue collection and the business & industrial community, Shamim Firpo requested the FBR to extend the last date of filing income tax returns up to December 31, 2016 while considering the complications and errors in the online system.
