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The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has extended the time for submission of corporate tax returns for the assessment year 2021-22 until June 15 due to poor response so far.
Until May 12 last, only around 24,000 returns were submitted out of 167,000 registered corporate taxpayers.
Last year, the NBR received around 30,000 returns in the whole year.
The original deadline for submission of the return for income year 2020-21 expired on January 15, 2022.
As per Income Tax Ordinance-1984, corporate taxpayers can extend the time until May 15, 2022 subject to approval by the taxmen.
However, they have to pay an interest, 2.0 per cent per month on the amount of payable tax, after expiry of the January 15 deadline.
A senior tax official said the penalty would be applicable for the extended period too.
In case of failure in payment of tax and submission of returns within the extended time frame, taxmen can take punitive action against the defaulters.
The tax official said the introduction of the document verification system (DVS) would help bring discipline in corporate tax return submission this year.
"The NBR has extended the time to facilitate companies to correct their financial statements and maintain one book of accounts with the help of DVS," the tax official said.
The DVS, developed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB), would ensure transparency in the financial reporting system.
So far, the chartered accountants have issued 32,439 document verification codes from the system. Of the DVCs, some 25,191 are companies.
The CAs said the process of auditing the financial statements slowed as many corporate taxpayers were unwilling to disclose their previously undisclosed income that they showed through multiple books of accounts.
ICAB president Md Shahadat Hossain said initially any new system takes time to get popular, but many of the taxpayers have obtained DVC to submit tax returns.
Now, corporate taxpayers are getting access to CAs for their availability to prepare financial reports, he added. He said the penalty is imposed for delay in payment of corporate tax, not for delay in submission of returns.