Staff reporter :
The ongoing month-long income tax service initiated by NBR across the country would not be extended after November 30 as the revenue board sees no logical ground for it, the officials said.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) took the decision on Tuesday at a meeting with the tax officials, they said.
The field offices of the NBR organised the month-long show in their respective offices in order to enable taxpayers to submit their income tax returns as the board did not hold tax fair for the second consecutive year.
The tax offices have kept open booths on their office premises from November 1 and they will remain open until November 30, the deadline for furnishing income tax returns without penalty.
But the return submission activities are yet to be satisfactory and the tax officials are passing time idly as there is no pressure of the individual tax payers, the officials said.
They said around 25-30 per cent tax returns have been submitted so far, although the officials are conducting campaign in order to increase the return submission.
“We are campaigning in different ways and sending SMS to the taxpayers to encourage them to file returns. But, the return submission is yet to reach a satisfactory level,” said AKM Badiul Alam, Commissioner of Tax Zone-1.
“All the booths, except two, in my tax zone have yet to be functional due to low presence of the individual tax payers, despite 16 days have been passed,” he said.
He, however, expected that the return submission would be increased in the last ten days of the service.
NBR has been getting great response from taxpayers regarding e-returns and the taxpayers are increasingly getting interested in the e-return services at help desks set up across the country this year.
The income tax returns have been received uninterruptedly during office hours in 649 circles under 31 tax regions across the country.
The taxpayers, like previous years, are getting acknowledgement receipt of submission of their tax returns instantly after furnishing the documents.
Taxpayers have also scope to register and re-register for taxpayer identification numbers electronically from the service booths. A healthy amount of revenues has been deposited in the state coffers through the month long tax return submissions.
