Tax regulator may fail to attain quarterly tax collection target by Rs30 billion

ISLAMABAD: The tax regulator will probably miss its quarterly revenue collection target by around Rs30 billion, according to provisional estimates, said officials.

The government’s tax revenues and the number of income tax return filers has fallen during the first quarter of the present financial year 2018-19, due to hold-up in the imposition of new tax measures, reports Express Tribune.

The officials said the main reason attributable to missing the quarterly (July-Sep) tax collection target of Rs890 billion was the Rs35 billion tax relief given by the previous PML-N government.

Also, slow disbursement of funds for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) also affected the tax revenues.

With only two days left in September, till now less than 300,000 people and corporations have filed their annual income tax returns.

An official said there was a high probability that the government would provide a one-month extension in the deadline for filing income tax returns.

And the matter has been deliberated with the Finance Minister Asad Umar, who is said to have given approval for a one-month extension in the deadline.

The Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) in a complaint filed to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Jahanzeb Khan said enough time hadn’t been provided for filing tax returns and statements.

PTBA stated without providing enough time for preparing and filing tax returns, it wasn’t legal to ask individuals to file returns by the statutory deadline of September 30^th.

It contended that several amendments and important changes had been carried out periodically. PTBA shared the Income Tax Return and Wealth Statement Forms 2018 had been finalized on the 17^th of August 2018.

Moreover, it highlighted the draft of corporate tax return hadn’t yet been finalized.

The PTBA has requested the government to extend the deadline for filing annual income tax returns till November 16^th, 2018, to ensure maximization of the number of filers and help existing taxpayers.