During the last 14 days, there is an increase of 166,413 returns in number, they said. When contacted, an official said that the comparison of income tax returns received (tax year 2017) till November 14, 2017 cannot be made with the whole year's returns ie 1.2 million filed for tax year 2016. The returns filed till November 2017 can be compared with returns filed till November 2016. The last year's 1.2 million returns figure is a final figure for the whole year (up to June 30, 2017) which cannot be compared with the incomplete or provisional figure of up to October 31, 2017. So far, the date for filing of income tax returns has not been expired for tax year 2017.
The 1.2 million returns figure for tax year 2016 included voluntarily filed returns and returns enforced after issuance of notices under section 114 of the Income Tax Ordinance to the non-filers. Such notices under section 114 have been issued after expiry of deadline of filing of returns. Therefore, the provisional figure of returns filed till November 2017 do not include any data which would be enforced by filing of returns from non-filers. The data of such returns enforced from non-filers could only be included after expiry of the final date for filing of income tax returns for tax year 2017, the sources added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017