Glitch in IRIS portal: Taxpayers unable to submit applications

KARACHI: A glitch in the IRIS portal has made it impossible for the registered taxpayers to submit applications to revise their sales tax returns after the 120-day revision period.

The Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) in its letter informed the member FBR (IT) that under Section 26(3) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, taxpayers can revise their sales tax returns within 120 days of filing the original return, subject to approval from the Commissioner. After this period lapse, they can still apply for condonation under Section 74 to allow a revision.

The official process requires first requesting online approval from the Commissioner for condonation, and then applying to revise the return under Section 26(3). However, KTBA stated that a compulsory “reference order number” field on the condonation application page is no longer auto-populating on the IRIS portal.

“Previously, the reference order number used to appear automatically as the unique number of the return the taxpayer wanted to revise but now it has stopped appearing, making it impossible to submit the application,” the letter said. KTBA claimed that numerous complaints regarding this issue have been sent to the FBR’s helpline over emails and calls, but no response has been received so far from tax authorities.

The Bar urged the FBR’s member IT to urgently intervene and instruct the PRAL team to fix the glitch so the reference order number can restart generating, allowing taxpayers to submit their condonation and revision applications properly.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024