LAHORE: The offices of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), State Bank and different branches of National Banks were seen overcrowded as the public qued to file income tax returns before the September 30 deadline; however, the deadline has now been extended to October 31, Pakistan Today learnt on Monday.
Earlier, the FBR had issued a notice for regional tax offices and relevant banks to remain open until midnight so that the people could submit their returns while the FBR Commissioner Inland Revenue (CIR) Aysha Imran Butt had written a letter to all government departments directing the higher-ups to make sure their staff submits tax returns.
Pakistan Today also learnt that the welfare wing of services and general administration department had also established a taxpayer facilitation centre for government officials and servants of the secretariat to file returns for 2019 and directed all officials working under the Punjab government to fulfil their legal obligation of filing returns of their taxable incomes as well.
Interestingly, well-informed sources have revealed that thousands of government servants from different departments including Punjab Police, Child Protection Welfare Bureau, Agriculture Department, Education Department, Health Department, LDA, PHA did not submit their returns.
Similarly, a crowd of residents of Walton cantonment board (WCB) were also present in the WCB office for the submission of their property tax and the national bank branch of WCB and Girja Chowk was full of people.
While talking to Pakistan Today, an official of FBR informed that it was difficult to say that how many government employees did not file taxes therefore a list of non-filer and non-tax payers would be compiled in October. “We will grip non-tax payers because filing returns is a legal responsibility,” he said.
