The federal government continues to face difficulties in expanding the tax net, while in three months the government has barely connected 1,900 new sales machines to the tax system.
According to the Federal Board of Revenue sources, 3.1 million income tax returns were filed in the last tax year, but in the current tax year, the FBR has so far received about one million tax returns.
On the other hand, Chairman FBR Dr Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed has said that the deadline for filing tax returns will not be extended. The government has taken several steps to persuade the public to file tax returns, but so far no results have been forthcoming.
The government also claimed that it had identified 7.2 million people based on withholding tax payments. But only three and a half of them could be brought into the tax net.
According to statistics, the number of FBR-linked sales points is just over 13,700. The number was 11,830 in June this year. That is an increase of about 1900 sales points in the first 3 months of the current financial year.
It should be noted that there are 5 days left in the deadline for filing tax returns and so far only 1 million returns have been submitted.
