- KCCI president says new form is cumbersome, wastes a lot of time and contains IT-related glitches
KARACHI: Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) President Junaid Esmail Makda has called for the restoration of previous tax filers’ form, keeping in view the complications faced by the tax filers in the Federal Board of Revenue’s revised form.
In a statement issued on Monday, Junaid Makda said that the restoration of the previous form, which was agreed upon after great deliberations, would help improve the number of taxpayers in the active taxpayers’ list. Otherwise, he warned, the number of active taxpayers would shrink and prove counterproductive to all efforts being made to enhance the tax base of the country.
He said that many KCCI’s members were finding it difficult to submit their income tax returns through the new form as it was too cumbersome, wastes a lot of time and contains some IT-related glitches as well, making it an exercise in futility.
“Prior to implementing such technically difficult and cumbersome forms, the FBR should carry out massive awareness campaigns by holding workshops and seminars at all levels as the filers belong to all three segments of the society i.e. the upper, middle and lower class,” he maintained.
Makda noted that this year, FBR made the ‘businesses attributes section’ mandatory which was optional last year whereas it has been observed that the said list is incomplete, leaving enough room for errors and misfiling which is likely to become a major cause of creating issues between FBR and filers.
In this regard, Junaid Makda requested the FBR to make the attributes section optional and that it should be made mandatory only when the attributes list is completely accurate and comprehensive in consultation with stakeholders.
He was fairly optimistic that keeping in view the grievances being faced by a number of taxpayers, FBR would consider KCCI’s request to restore the previous form for filing income tax returns as per aspirations of the business and industrial community and in line with present government’s policies.
