The Federal Board of Revenue has extended deadlines of its field offices and some designated bank branches to collect the tax and duties to facilitate the taxpayers.
According to the notification, all its offices, including LTs, CTOs, and RTOs, shall remain open and observe extended working hours till 08:00 pm on Thursday, 30th December 2021 till 12:00 am on Friday, 31st December 2021, to facilitate the taxpayers in payment of duties and taxes.
The Chief Commissioners-IR are requested to establish liaison with State Bank of Pakistan and authorized branches of National Bank of Pakistan to ensure transfer of tax collection by these branches to the respective branches of State Bank of Pakistan on the same date to account for the same towards the collection for the month of December 2021.
In order to facilitate the collection of Government receipts/duties/taxes, the State Bank of Pakistan has also decided that the field offices of SBP Banking Services Corporation (SBP-BSC) and authorized branches of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) will observe extended banking hours till 8:00 P.M. and 10:00 P.M. on 30th and 31st December 2021 respectively.
Accordingly, NIFT has been advised to arrange a special clearing at 8:00 P.M. on 31 st December 2021 (Friday) for same-day clearing of payment instruments.
All banks are, therefore, advised to keep their concerned branches open on 31st December, 2021 (Friday) till such time that is necessary to facilitate the special clearing for Government transactions by NIFT.
The government had set a target of Rs. 5.8 trillion for the current fiscal year. It is expected that the target will be revised to Rs. 6.1 trillion through the mini-budget. According to the FBR, it had collected net revenue of Rs. 2,314 billion during the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year 2021-22, which has exceeded the target of Rs. 2,016 billion by Rs. 298 billion.
The 36.5 percent growth comes despite the daunting challenges, and compelling constraints posed by the coronavirus pandemic, and sporadic tax cuts announced by the government as relief and price stabilization measures. The collection clocked in at Rs. 1,695 billion during the same period last year.
