FE Report

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) Sunday once again extended the deadline for individual tax return submission until November 12 in the backdrop of poor response compared to the last year, officials said.

November 1 (Sunday) was the last day of individual tax return. Income tax offices witnessed huge rush of taxpayers for submitting tax return before expiry of the deadline. All tax offices were open until 8.00 pm Sunday.

Until Sunday, the NBR has received nearly 0.55 million tax return while it was 0.67 million in the previous tax year.

Officials said the revenue board received more than 0.1 million tax on Sunday alone as taxpayers thought the government will not extend the time further.

The board earlier extended the deadline to November 1 from original deadline September 30.

The board has extended the deadline once again with the request of cross section of people and organisation, said a press release.

The NBR will not extend the time after November 12, it said.

All tax offices will remain open on November 7 (Saturday) to help individual

taxpayers submit tax return, the press release said.

The NBR will take actions and impose penalty against those who will fail to submit tax returns within the extended time frame, it said.

"It is a common practice to extend the time twice in a year. Taxpayers also are being familiar with the trend. This is the major reason why a number of taxpayers remain reluctant to submit tax return by the first deadline," said an official.

He said Deputy Tax Commissioner (DCT) can extend the time by three to six months on the basis of individual application but it should be submitted before expiry of deadline.