ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has received four per cent more income tax returns from salaried, non-salaried individuals, the association of persons and companies for the tax year 2020 by Dec 8 deadline.

The board received 1.8 million returns until the last date as compared to 1.73m returns filed in the corresponding period of tax year 2019.

However, the FBR is still falling behind the last year level by 1.1 million returns as a total of 2.9 million returns were filed in the tax year 2019.

An official announcement of the FBR said that the board received Rs22 billion with tax returns in tax year 2020 as against Rs13.5bn deposited last year, an increase of 63pc.

Meanwhile, the FBR has also decided to immediately roll out action against the taxpayers who neither have filed their returns nor sought permission for extension.

The government has not extended the last date, but allowed individuals to place manual requests with chief commissioners of Inland Revenue to get 15-day extension for filing their returns.

According to the FBR, the government had decided not to extend the Dec 8 deadline with a view to restore the credibility and predictability of the final date, and to promote tax discipline.

However, to ensure that no hardship was faced by taxpayers, a number of special measures were adopted.

These include liberal acceptance of requests for extension in filing date as available under the law, provision to file requests manually besides the on-line facility, enabling tax practitioners/advisors to file a single request for multiple clients; and enabling the chief commissioners to set-up special desks for collection of manual request and sorting their jurisdiction at their level.

As a result of these measures, a large number of taxpayers to file extension requests which are being granted. It is estimated that at least 300,000 taxpayers have made use of this facility, thus taking the number of potential returns to 2.1 million, which is 21pc higher compared to last year until Dec 9.

It is further stated that the process of filing is continuing unabated. A comparison with the returns of last year at the close of deadline, which was June 30, 2020 would be meaningful when the number of additional returns to be filed until 30 June 2021 is available.

FBR commends the determination of taxpayers, and the support it received from members of Tax Bars from all over the country, who have made such record setting returns and income tax payments possible. The results establish that the decision not to allow general extension in the last date, would go a long way toward re-establishing much needed trust and credibility of the tax system.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2020