Donor-led tax projects failing, says TIB

Staff Reporter :

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has called on the government to prioritise domestic technological capacity and potential when adopting new automation initiatives in revenue management.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the anti-corruption watchdog expressed concern over the repeated failures of donor-driven digitalisation projects, which, according to the organisation, have yielded limited tangible results.

The comments follow recent reports that the National Board of Revenue (NBR), with support from the World Bank, is preparing to launch a new project worth Tk 1,000 crore. The initiative aims to enhance income tax collection and reduce tax evasion.

TIB warned that proceeding with such a large-scale project without evaluating the shortcomings of previous efforts could lead to further inefficiencies and wasted public funds.

“Despite multiple digitisation efforts over the past 15 years, essential services such as online income tax return filing remain unavailable. Harassment and corruption persist, and the tax-to-GDP ratio continues to decline,” said Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of TIB.