The new e-filing system through web-portal is not responding to the taxpayers who want to file the returns electronically and they were facing serious problems in enrolment and filing of sales tax and federal excise returns.
Speaking at a reception, Chairman PIAF Mian Abuzar Shad said that the newly introduced system seemed to be overloaded with data, or does not have capacity to handle a large number of returns. He said that a large number of taxpayers have informed him that despite their best efforts, they could not obtain enrolment with the new system.
The system has a single helpline, which further creates problems for taxpayers, as it is very difficult for them to get connected even with this helpline. "It is not clear whether the system has capacity to handle such a huge data", he said.
He said the situation would further aggravate as the Central Board of Revenue has already announced that the non-corporate sector would have to submit their returns through e-filing system from the next month. He urged upon the CBR to put off this decision of e-filing by non-corporate sector till the system becomes able to bear the load of corporate sector.
The taxpayers were also facing another major problem for depositing sales tax/federal excise at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) branches through e-filing system. Taxpayers, who have submitted unique identification number along with the computerised printout of returns at banks, the NBP branches demanded manual returns. In many cases, banks had not given computerised payment receipts (CPR) to the taxpayers.
He urged the CBR Chairman to authorise all branches of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) to collect monthly returns of sales tax and federal excise on line. He suggested the CBR to slow down the process of reforms until, the system is capable to bear the load. He further said that the Central Board should avoid any solo decision without taking stakeholders into confidence.