ISLAMABAD - The government on Friday extended the deadline of filing income returns for another one month due to the poor response from the people to file their returns.

“Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday approved extension in the due date for filing of income tax returns/statements by companies, salaried individuals, other individuals and AOPs, till October 31, 2017,” said an official handout released by the Ministry of Finance. The minister approved extension in the date in view of the requests made by the tax bars and various trade and other associations due to Eidul Azha and Muharram holidays, both falling in September 2017. It was felt that the taxpayers could not find ample time for filing of their tax returns. The due date for filing of returns has therefore been extended.

Sources in Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have informed The Nation that the government has extended the deadline of filing income reruns after getting poor response. Around 1,92,000 people have filed their returns by the evening of September 29. However, the returns are higher as against the same month of the last year when less than 60,000 people had filed their income returns.

The number of income tax filers would increase, as FBR engages chambers, industry captains in drive for filing of IT returns,” said an official of the FBR. He further said that the FBR has already stepped up its taxpayers outreach campaign by engaging chambers, banks, power distribution companies and business organisations in different cities in a bid to further boost the filing of Income Tax returns.

It is worth mentioning here that total number of taxpayers who have filed their returns has increased to 1,216,614 in 2016 compared with 1,074,418 taxpayers in the directory for the Tax Year 2015.