Online income tax return submission increased

Staff Reporter :
The number of online return submission in 2022-23 by the individual taxpayers crossed 2-lakh milestone.
Some 2.07 lakh tax returns were submitted through online for the current fiscal year, three times higher from 61,000 the previous year, according to a data of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Individuals submitted a total of 28.51 lakh tax returns until January 1, the final day for filing of income and wealth statements for the fiscal year without any penalty.
NBR Member Zahid Hasan, who is entrusted with rendering online return submission-related services, told The New Nation, “E-return submission offers various facilities like e-payment while staying at home alongside taking certificates, taking copies of income tax returns and thus applying before the revenue board for extending the timeframe for submitting returns.”
“The taxpayers are gradually becoming more interested in submitting returns online since it is very easy and taxpayer-friendly,” he added.
The number of registered taxpayers is gradually increasing in Bangladesh, but return submission is low relative to the size and growth of the economy, which has expanded significantly in the past decade.
But the rate of taxpayers in a country of 17 crore people is just over 4 per cent, a figure that creates doubts about the efficacy of the tax authorities.
Besides, Bangladesh has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world even though it posted higher economic growth in the last decade.
The lower revenue generation persists even though the country, driven by a rapidly expanding middle and affluent class, has one of the largest consumer markets in the world. The local consumer market is set to become the ninth-largest in the world, which is projected to grow from about 19 million in 2020 to about 34 million by 2025, according to global consulting firm Boston Consulting Group.
The government also admits that it is essential to raise the tax-GDP ratio significantly in order to support the country’s graduation to a developed country.
Amid lower tax collection, the NBR made it mandatory for TIN-holders to turn in income and expenditure returns in 2020-2021.
NBR Member (Tax Policy) Sams Uddin Ahmed said that in many cases, there is a culture in the country that one does not move to carry out a task until he or she is compelled to.
So, the NBR has initiated various steps to motivate taxpayers, he said.
Experts, however, blame inadequate monitoring and enforcement, the absence of regular taxpayer surveys by independent agencies, and the slow pace of automation of the tax system for the lower return submission.