The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has said that it has solved the issues related to the online filing Sales Tax Return system, and it is now fully functional, and taxpayers must use the facility.
According to the FBR, 114,405 the Sales Tax Returns for January were filed to date through National Sales Tax Return (NSTR) compared to 161,379 in December 2021. 159,503 Sales Tax Returns were filed in December 2020.
“No technical issue has so far been reported in the National Sales Tax Return. Therefore, all the remaining Sales Tax Registered Persons are requested to file their returns before the extended due date as no further extension will be granted by FBR. Similarly, taxpayers are also encouraged to file their refund applications through faster, using this digital facility, without further delay”, said in a statement.
After the launching of the NSTR in January 2022, some taxpayers complained of difficulties in filing the new return. Most of these issues came up due to initial learning difficulties and understanding of the new system.
Therefore, in order to facilitate the smooth transition, a number of steps have been taken by FBR, including regular interaction with different tax bar associations to educate the tax practitioners, uploading of video tutorials, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on FBR’s website. Furthermore, a new “Complaint” tab in IRIS has been added to allow taxpayers to directly register their complaints instead of resorting to the FBR helpline.
Furthermore, as per FBR, all the issues reported have been resolved, while the enhancements and new features suggested by the taxpayers are being added.
The NSTR was prepared by FBR in order to facilitate the taxpayers who had to file multiple Sales Tax Returns to FBR and the different provincial sales tax authorities. Building further on its ongoing drive to ensure ease of doing business, this innovative intervention is aimed at simplifying the filing process and minimizing the data entry. It is also designed to rule out calculation errors by adding some inbuilt functionalities.
