KTBA identifies ‘glitches’ in tax portal

KARACHI: The Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) has identified glitches in the filing of condonation applications on the IRIS portal.

In a letter to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), President of the KTBA Syed Zafar Ahmed said that under Section 26(3) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 (Act), “a registered person can revise his sales tax return within 120 days of filing the original one after the commissioner’s approval. In the event the above period of 120 days is lapsed, the taxpayer may also approach the commissioner to condone the lapse of timeline for revision.”

“This process is prescribed under the Act and is very much available on the IRIS portal as well where, at first, a taxpayer requests for the online approval of the commissioner for condonation under Section 74 of the Act and then the revision of the return under Section 26(3) of the Act.”

He noted that the online application for condonation on the portal requires a compulsory selection of a ‘reference order number’ without which the application cannot be submitted for the approval of the commissioner. Previously, the reference order number used to appear automatically as the unique number of the return for which the taxpayer is filing the revision application.He added that “now the reference order number does not appeari on the portal” when a taxpayer is filing the revision application due to which a taxpayer cannot submit the condonation application, he pointed out.

“It appears that the recent update of the IRIS portal may have some glitches due to which the reference order number is not appearing. We have also been informed by our Bar members that the glitch in the portal was also pointed out to the FBR helpline through various emails, calls and reminders which, ended in vain as no response has yet been received by the FBR helpline.”