The Federal Board of Revenue is close to meet the 80,000 sales tax return filing target of registered persons by the end of current month, reflecting a major improvement in the compliance level on the sales tax side. Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that the FBR has received over and above 68,000 sales tax returns for the tax period of July 2011.
Similarly, the FBR has successfully received sales tax returns of over and above 58,000 registered persons. It is expected that the remaining sales tax returns would be filed in the remaining period of current month. The sales tax return filing date for tax periods July & August 2011 has already been extended upto September 30, 2011 by the FBR.
The target of sales tax return filing would be met due to the efforts of the FBR to simplify the sales tax and federal excise return form based on the feedback of the business and trade. Over 50 percent of the Sales Tax returns are being filed during the last two to three days of every month. This clearly reflects that the FBR would be able to surpass the target of 80,000 sales tax returns.
In this connection, the FBR has convened awareness seminars in all major cities of the country and improved the e-filing system. The FBR has issued instructions to the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (Pral) to remove the software problems to ensure smooth filing of returns, electronically. The Board has also simplified columns of the sales tax return taking into account suggestions of the business and trade. A major improvement in the level of compliance has been witnessed on the sales tax side following enforcement and compliance at the level of the field formations.