August 22, 2007	Wednesday	Sha’aban 8, 1428

KARACHI, Aug 21: Taxpayers face problems in filing their monthly and annual tax statements as well as tax returns through the newly introduced e-filing system. There is a growing concern amongst the tax consultants who complain that with hardly 40 days left for filing of annual tax returns the electronic filing system was not working.

The Income Tax Bar Association Karachi (ITBAK) has approached Member Direct Taxes Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in this regard and sought his assistance in sorting out the issue.

President ITBAK Munawwar Hussain Shaikh drew the attention of the FBR member towards irritants and deficiencies in the e-filing system recently introduced by the FBR.

The biggest problem being faced by the taxpayers is that the system does not have provision of registration of an e-intermediary in the e-filing software, which is being used by the FBR and its outposts such as Large Taxpayers Unit, Karachi.

In the absence of the provision of e-intermediary, the resident as well as non-resident corporate taxpayers are unable to avail the facility of e-filing. Non-resident corporate taxpayers invariably require the services of tax consultants for preparing and filing of the statutory tax returns and statements.

It has been pointed out that after being registered as an e-intermediary, a tax consultant or adviser may be able to provide services of e-filing to unlimited number of taxpayers.

Similarly, for registration as a taxpayer one has to face a number of problems. The main problem is that taxpayers have no access to the websites given by the FBR and the LTU, Karachi.

There is a general feeling that the system of e-filing has been hurriedly introduced and its implementation has created a lot of infrastructural as well as technical issues for the taxpayers on one side and the department on the other.

It has been also noted that even today a lot of corporate elites are not computer literate, therefore, a reasonable time should be provided so that all the stakeholders become conversant with the system so that an error free procedure could work.

The ITBAK has demanded that mandatory e-filing requirement should be kept in abeyance for sometime and hardcopies and CDs containing computer readable data may be accepted till such time that the system become hassle free. The present system is not user friendly.

The bar has also asked the FBR not to forget the role of tax advisers and consultants as e-intermediary, which has been duly recognised by the law.

Therefore, in the process of setting up policies and procedures for adopting modern techniques like e-filing, the tax consultants should be given due importance.