The National Board of Revenue on Wednesday extended the deadline for filing income tax returns for the second time this year by 15 days due mainly to the lower rate of returns submission.
‘The last day for submission of the tax returns for individual taxpayers is now November 15,’ NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain told reporters at his office.
Earlier on September 30, the NBR extended the deadline for submitting tax returns by a month to October 31 that ended on Wednesday.
The revenue board on October 23 issued a statement and said that the deadline for submitting tax returns for the current fiscal year would not be extended further.
Ghulam said the deadline had been extended following demands from various quarters, including different trade bodies, chambers including the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Many taxpayers failed to submit their returns as there were several holidays on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja festivals in the previous extension, he said.
‘So we found reasons to extend deadline for the second time,’ he said.
NBR officials, however, said the number of returns submitted by the individuals remained very low even in extended deadline which was the main reason for the extension.
According to NBR statistics, around 6.5 lakh taxpayers have submitted their tax returns till October 29 while a total of 10.56 lakh taxpayers had submitted tax returns last year, they said.
The regular deadline for filing tax returns is September 30. But every year, the NBR extends the deadline because of unsatisfied response from the taxpayers in the stipulated time, they added.
Ghulam said the tax administration would take punitive action against those failed to submit tax returns by the extended time.
According to the Income Tax Ordinance 1984, the tax administration can impose penalty of Tk 1,000 at a time and Tk 50 for each subsequent day for non-submission of tax return on time.