The business community on Monday sought a one-month extension to the income tax return filing deadline, proposing that the cutoff date be moved to October 31, 2026, to facilitate traders, industries and other taxpayers. Atif Ikram Sheikh, president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), formally urged the federal government and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to extend the deadline by one month.
The apex trade body said the extension is not a concession but a practical necessity to ensure maximum tax compliance, broaden the tax base and ease the pressure currently faced by the business community, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individual taxpayers. Sheikh said that as the September 30 deadline approached, taxpayers and tax practitioners are facing severe systemic bottlenecks. The FBR's Iris portal has experienced frequent slowdowns, glitches and outages due to heavy traffic nationwide, he said.
These technical disruptions are preventing thousands of willing taxpayers from submitting their returns and wealth statements accurately and on time, he added.He said the business community is fully committed to fulfilling its national duty and contributing to the national exchequer. However, penalising taxpayers for systemic inefficiencies and inadequate digital infrastructure was unfair, he said. President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Muhammad Rehan Hanif urged the FBR to immediately restore taxpayers' previous passwords to ensure uninterrupted access to the IRIS system.Hanif said the FBR has changed the passwords of all individuals filing income tax returns, causing serious difficulties for taxpayers in submitting their returns.
He said at least 30 per cent of taxpayers currently abroad or travelling are facing difficulties in obtaining their new passwords. Taxpayers abroad are particularly affected as they had not received SMS notifications containing their new passwords, disrupting their access to the Iris system, he added. The KCCI president said taxpayers are also facing severe difficulties in filing their returns due to unusual pressure on the IRIS portal and system overload.He said the password changes have further complicated the filing process during the final days before the deadline.