KARACHI: The failure on part of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to address issues in its newly launched e-filing software has forced the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) of Karachi to open a dedicated helpline.

The taxpayers and tax consultants have been facing difficulties in e-filing of their tax returns for the tax year 2014 through the new software — Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) — launched by the FBR this year on its web-portal.

Against this backdrop, the FBR has had to extend three times the date for filing of tax returns and wealth tax statements.

Tax consultant Muham­mad Aleem told Dawn that it seems to be internal politics of the FBR behind these issues in IRIS which otherwise looks most suitable system in the current situation.

New systems do carry some issues which are removed in due course, he said, but this time the FBR is taking longer to rectify problems. “It seems that a group within the FBR wants to see the system fail.”

The initial filing date was Sept 30. But it was later extended to Oct 31 because of complaints regarding the new system.

The FBR tried to remove some of the problems in IRIS but failed to make it completely faultless and user-friendly. This once again forced the board to extend date to Nov 21.

A notification issued by Additional Commissioner (HQ) Shakeel Ahmed Kasana said that all LTU taxpayers and their tax counsels are asked to seek technical help regarding problems in e-filing their tax returns on the following numbers: Zafar Hussain staff officer 021-99210457, Shakaib ul Arfeen (DBA) 021-9921-337 and Qaisar Zia (DBA) 021-99210337.

Published in Dawn, November 8th , 2014