Tax offices to observe extended working hours

KARACHI: Inland Revenue offices will observe extended working hours during the last two working days of the current month for the collection of duty and taxes.

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday directed chief commissioners of Inland Revenue to keep offices opened and observe extended working hours till 10:00 pm on 28 September and till 12:00 midnight on 29 September to collect duty and taxes.

Government announced public holiday on September 30 and October 1 on account of 9 and 10 Muharram (Ashura). 

Officials at Regional Tax Office, Karachi said the office timings are extended to meet the revenue target for first quarter (July – September) of the current fiscal year.

The FBR’s provisional collection at the national level amounted to Rs449 billion in July-August, up 23 percent as compared to around Rs365 billion collected in the similar period of the last fiscal year.

Government set a tax collection target of four trillion rupees for the apex tax authorities for 2017/18 fiscal year, which is 19 percent more than the collection of Rs3,362 billion collected in 2016/17.

FBR also directed the chief commissioners to coordinate with State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and authorised branches of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) to ensure transfer of collected tax before or on 29 September.

Meanwhile, SBP instructed NBP for timely reporting and deposit of government receipts/payments. SBP further directed NBP to facilitate taxpayers and accept cheque and cash transactions till 8:00 pm on 28 September and till 10:00 pm on 29 September.