Taxpayers are still facing problem to locate their actual jurisdiction due to redistribution of tax files in different tax zones after expansion of tax offices in 2011.
Both taxmen and taxpayers are confused over the actual jurisdiction of some individual taxpayers as their tax files have been reallocated to different tax zones under the current manual system.
A number of taxpayers complained that they had received notices from other tax circles for submission of tax returns for fiscal year 2012-13 while these are already submitted within the deadline to the tax circles shown in e-TIN.
This year a number of taxpayers have obtained time petitions for three months which expired March 31, despite extension of the deadline thrice by the revenue board as many are still confused over change in jurisdiction.
A taxpayer, preferring anonymity, said he received wrong jurisdiction of tax zones in the e-TIN while his tax file falls in another tax circle.
"I had to spend time to find out my actual jurisdiction to submit return," he said.
Taxpayers alleged that officials at many field level tax offices also could not say exactly under which tax zones' jurisdiction they belong to, he added.
It is difficult to get access to senior officials of income tax in NBR to confirm the jurisdiction, he added.
The NBR started its expansion programme in 2011 and since then taxmen are receiving queries regarding their jurisdiction, said a senior tax official.
"The problem in respect of jurisdiction worsened from July 1 this year after introduction of e-TIN as many of the taxpayers received wrong addresses of their tax jurisdiction in the TIN form," he said.
The official said e-TIN generation system should be upgraded so that taxpayers can get their actual jurisdiction numbers from the system.
"It is the responsibility of taxpayers too to write the correct addresses of their residences and offices to help the e-TIN system give the correct jurisdiction," he said.
After expansion of tax offices, the number of tax zones has been increased to 31 from 18. The number of tax circles also doubled to net more taxpayers.
This year taxmen also faced problems to calculate exact number of taxpayers in different tax zones due to such relocation,
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) received lower tax returns for the income year FY 2012-13, within the deadline of December 31, compared to that of the last year.
Taxmen pointed out jurisdiction change as reason for the downward growth of tax return submission.
Although taxmen claimed that all the 31 tax zones of the NBR sent letters to their respective taxpayers, many people were found unaware about the change in the jurisdiction.
Tax officials said the NBR displayed jurisdiction of taxpayers at the tax fair also to make taxpayers aware about their changed jurisdiction.
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