KARACHI, Aug 20: A large number of taxpayers failed to e-file their sales tax returns despite the last date extended from August 15 to 25 due to problems at web portal of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

The biggest problem being confronted by the taxpayers is insufficient bandwidth of web portal of FBR, which fails to support the load of approximately 44,000 registered sales tax users.

As a result of narrow bandwidth the web portal is not accessible most of the time, a tax consultant said.

Tax consultants told Dawn that during the period from August 11 to 17 the web portal was so busy that e-registration became almost impossible.

The sales tax returns were filed manually on 15th of each month. But the FBR after developing software on its web portal fixed August 15 as the last date for shifting from manual filing to e-filing.

“The taxpayers faced problems as the telephone lines of custom support service of FBR were busy all the time,” Azam a tax consultant said.

A general complaint is that the system is not free from “bug error” and this creates a lot of hassle in filing of returns.

Among many lapses and deficiencies it has been pointed out that on e-registration page some key categories, such as importer, exporter, manufacturer, and wholesaler are missing.

The web portal also does not carry tax consultants’ category, therefore, it would not be possible for e-intermediaries to get themselves registered. The consultants also complained that some terminologies used on the portal were not defined and cited that “n.e.c.” is one such term, which needs explanation.

It is also being complained that on the e-registration page, when information fed for processing an error emerges and the taxpayer has to repeatedly feed the information.

A senior member of Income Tax Bar Association Karachi (ITBAK) told Dawn that all bank branches were fed in the FBR database of the web portal, which causes a lot of problem besides, hindering e-registration. For adding a particular bank branch in the portal a taxpayer has to visit tax department to give them the branch code or else it will not be fed in the system.

It has been also pointed out by tax consultants that bank account opening date was a prerequisite and if the same was not available the registration process remains incomplete.

The FBR web portal is so defective and deficient that even if one manages to get registration, he has to face a lot of problems in filing sales tax return.

The consultant further said that the National Tax Number (NTN) database and sales tax database were not updated, which causes problem. It has been witnessed that a sales tax registration number shows the name of some other taxpayer.

Most of the tax consultants contacted were of the view that awareness about the web portal should have been created before making it mandatory for every registered sales tax user to e-file their return online because all the taxpayers are not educated and computer literate.

The consultants suggested that initially e-filing should have been made mandatory for corporate taxpayers and option should have been given to others to file returns manually or electronically for a period of 6 or 12 months.