As the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has not extended the date for filing of sales tax/federal excise returns electronically, the non-filers of sales tax returns would be liable to pay ''additional tax'' after due date ie December 15, 2005 as per rules.
Sources told Business Recorder on Friday that the business community was expecting extension in the date for filing of returns. However, no extension has been given in this regard. Moreover, CBR has not made any official announcement regarding acceptance of manually filed returns by large taxpaying units.
Tax practitioners claimed that a number of public/private limited companies were unable to file sales tax returns electronically. However, some of the companies had filed returns manually by December 15, 2005, despite the fact that it was mandatory for the registered units of Large Taxpayers Units (LTUs), Karachi/Lahore and public/private limited companies to file returns electronically.
In certain cases, units were unable to obtain the digital signatures required for electronic filing of returns.
Legally, the public/private limited companies, which filed returns manually, would be considered as non-filers and would have to pay additional tax, they said.
This correspondent contacted tax practitioners operating in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to comment on the issue. All of them agreed that many taxpayers were unable to file returns electronically. The process of electronic filing is not complicated, but it requires at least some time period to switch over to the new system.
Some of the tax experts claimed that only 50 percent of the eligible companies were able to file returns electronically, as it was not logically possible for all the concerned units to implement the CBR directive within 10-15 days.
They demanded that CBR should have given the option to the taxpayers to file sales tax returns electronically or manually for at least one month. This transition period would have helped the registered taxpayers to adjust while switching over to electronic filing of tax returns.
However, the situation might clear after availability of official figures about the number of persons who actually obtained the digital signatures for filing of returns electronically.