Staff reporter :
National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman and Internal Resources Division (IRD) Secretary Md Abdur Rahman Khan has stressed the need to balance trade facilitation with strict enforcement of laws to meet the revenue targets for the current fiscal year.
“No importer or exporter should face harassment through unnecessary BIN locks,” he said while addressing separate review meetings on revenue collection performance of the Customs, VAT, and Income Tax wings for July of FY2025-26.
According to an NBR press release issued on Friday (29 August), Khan said the authority’s main responsibility is to ensure smooth trade while collecting the desired level of revenue through proper enforcement of existing laws.
He directed officials to take action based on risk assessments and past records from the Asycuda system, rather than arbitrarily locking the accounts of compliant businesses.
Each customs house and intelligence unit must also explain the reasons behind BIN locks and the additional tax collected in their monthly meetings, he added.
The NBR chief emphasised proper application of VAT law and discouraged putting “unnecessary pressure” on honest taxpayers. Instead, he instructed officials to expand the VAT net, bring habitual evaders under exemplary legal action, and ensure all eligible businesses register for VAT.
To modernise operations, he ordered all bond-related activities to shift online within a month, setting strict service deadlines and holding officials accountable for delays.
He further warned that misuse of bond facilities would result in immediate license cancellations and legal action against both importers and complicit revenue officials.
On customs management, Khan directed stronger auction activities to clear container congestion at ports, with a target to dispose of long-pending consignments by December 2025.
During the income tax division review, the NBR chairman called for deploying adequate manpower in commissionerates to assist taxpayers in filing e-returns and to strengthen call centre support.
He instructed integration between the eTIN and eTDS systems for automatic updates and stressed faster settlement of audit cases to increase tax collection.
He also directed notices to be issued to all non-filers, on-site investigations into their income and assets, and strict enforcement of the Income Tax Act.
To enhance monitoring, Khan said NBR board members must meet with commissioners weekly to review actions against non-filers, tax evasion, audit settlements, and return processing, reporting progress directly to him.
Senior commissioners of Customs, VAT, and Income Tax divisions, along with NBR board members, attended the meetings and pledged collective efforts to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio by expanding revenue collection.
