Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Mohammad Abdul Mazid told bdnews24.com Monday: "A final decision on exactly how long will be taken Tuesday."
He added: "The press has reported that the deadline may be lengthened by up to a month. The NBR would like to clearly state that in no circumstances will it be extended by one month."
"It will be extended by only a few days on special consideration."
The annual Sept 30 deadline is normally extended each year; this year the NBR stretched it another month to Oct 31.
But returns were still not up to expectation, the NBR chairman, which is why the deadline would be stretched by a few more days.
Asked why returns were below expectations, Mazid said: "It has become a part of our culture to rush at the eleventh hour. It's the same case with income tax returns."
Asked whether the extension would be for a whole week, the NBR chief said: "I cannot say."
"Many people are expecting that the deadline for income tax return will be extended once more. They are waiting for this reason," he said.
He said he hoped that the returns would reach the expected level at the eleventh hour.
Mazid also pointed out that income tax laws allow any individual some days over the official deadline if they can give a specific reason for not being able to submit their return within the stipulated time, by appealing to the officials of the tax zone concerned.
He stressed, however, that the tax payer must show "valid cause."
According to the NBR, the number of tax payers, holding Tax Identification Numbers, in the country stands at 20 lakh.
Till Oct 15, only 92,000 tax payers had submitted their income tax returns, earning the government Tk 420 crore. Up to Monday the number had risen to 150,000 taxpayers.
Last year the government extended the deadline twice up to Nov 30, with the total number of TIN-holding taxpayers for 2007-08 standing at 640,000 paying Tk739 crore.
In 2006-07, 530,000 TIN-holders gave Tk 252 crore.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment