The National Board of Revenue on Sunday extended again the deadline for submission of income tax returns for individual taxpayers by one month. The income taxpayers will be able to file their returns till November 30, according to an official order of the NBR.
The deadline which was earlier extended to November 2 from original deadline of September 30 expired on Sunday.
In a separate statement, the revenue board said that the current deadline would not be extended further under any circumstance.
Although NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain on October 12 had said that the income tax return submission time limit would not be extended further, it compelled to retreat from its stance due to very poor response from the taxpayers within the last date of return submission.
According to unofficial data, less than 5 lakh taxpayers submitted their returns till Thursday. The number is less than half of the taxpayers of last year when around 10.50 lakh taxpayers submitted their returns.
The revenue board, however, said that the deadline was extended following the request from the trade and professional bodies including the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers and Commerce and Industry.
The FBCCI, the apex trade body of the country, said that many taxpayers could not collect the necessary documents for filing their income tax returns due to public holidays for Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja, performing hajj and ongoing hartals enforced by the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
Officials concerned said that extension of tax return submission timeframe became regular phenomena as the revenue board extended it several times over the last few years and people became habituated with it.
So, taxpayers show lethargic attitude in filing returns on time, they observed.
In future, it will be very difficult for the NBR to compel the taxpayers to submit the returns within the scheduled deadline starting from July 1 to September 30 unless it do not pay attention to enforcing the law on filing returns, an official of the NBR said.
According to the income tax ordinance, the NBR can fine Tk 1,000 at a time and Tk 50 for each day for not filing returns within the deadline.
-With New Age input
