This newspaper on Tuesday ran a report mentioning that around 63 per cent of the TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number) holders remained non-respondent to the mandatory provision of submission of income tax returns by the stipulated time which ended on Sunday. The National Board of Revenue (NBR), in line with the tax ordinance, had extended the return submission deadline till January 2 from November 30 due to poor return submission. But the effort went in vain. Actually, the people are showing less interest in return submission for the last couple of years due to Covid-19 pandemic as their earnings have fallen drastically. From limited income group people to big corporate houses — all had to face the adverse impact of the economic downturn this time.
So, it’s no surprise that the return submission rate would be low. About 52.41 per cent taxpayers didn’t submit returns in the previous fiscal 2020-21. In FY 2019-20, around half of the total taxpayers had submitted their tax returns. That means, on an average the NBR can ensure half of the total taxpayers’ returns. It may be a big question why NBR can’t achieve its target for years. Sometimes, the NBR authority says the people are non-responsive. Sometimes they blame the existing law and the ongoing system. This year it was no different. Though different sections of NBR has been digitised and many of the present staff have got in-service training, the organisation is yet to achieve professional competence.
Sources attributed the low tax return rate also to stopping the opportunity to whiten black money and average fall in income of people. However, corruption is a big hurdle for the smooth implementation of tax laws, and it is still allegedly prevailing at different tiers. Besides, most of the officials are reportedly not skilled and well-educated on financial matters. The country has roughly 60 lakh registered taxpayers who got a TIN each. They all must file their returns on incomes, no matter whether they have taxable income or not. We want to say the NBR must find out if most of the TIN numbers are fake or issued to serve limited purposes of their holders.
