Half of taxable people don’t pay levy: NBR chief
Staff Reporter :
Over half of the existing taxable people don’t pay taxes as the taxpayers consider paying taxes a burden and they feel that the government is collecting taxes unfairly or imposing taxes on them unjustly, said Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
He also said that the new income tax law has some flaws but efforts are underway to rectify it.
The revenue board Chairman came up with the remarks while speaking at a seminar on “New Income Tax Law and Tax Compliance: A Changing Perspective” organized by the NBR marking National Income Tax Day at its multipurpose hall in the city on Thursday.
He said the NBR expected 1 crore tax returns would be submitted this year.
“According to the latest survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the number of people able to pay taxes should be 7 million. But, around 3.5 million are paying taxes. So, the number of the income tax return submissions should be increased,” the NBR chairman said.
He further said, “The taxpayers consider paying taxes a burden and they feel that the government is collecting taxes unfairly or imposing taxes on them unjustly.
We want to maintain a good relationship with the taxpayers by removing tax scar.”
“We want to trust taxpayers and the taxpayers also have to keep the place of that trust.
The taxpayer has to file the income tax return. It should not be forced to file the return,” he added.
Muneem also said, “We have appointed Tax Return Preparers (TRPs) to increase the number of income tax return submissions.
They will help the taxpayers on behalf of NBR and motivate people to pay taxes to build prosperous Bangladesh.”
NBR Member (Tax Policy) Shams Uddin Ahmed said, “As per the various surveys, we think 6.5 to 7 million people should come under direct tax.
But we are getting income tax returns of 3.5 million. It means, if we are able to bring the large number of people under the tax net, the tax return submission will increase more than 50 per cent.”
“Tax survey is an important tool to increase the tax coverage.
There are two methods of tax survey. One is to go door-to-door and another is a data-based survey.
Currently, the NBR is doing that work. As much as the taxation system will be simplified, the number of taxpayers will grow and tax culture will be developed,” he added.
Last year, 36 lakh tax returns were submitted, although the country has over 94 lakhs Tax Identification Numbers (TIN). However, as of November 27 this year, this number is slightly more than 19 lakh.
In such a situation, NBR has extended two more months for individual taxpayers to file their returns after November 30.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin, Deputy attorney general Samarendra Nath Biswas, NBR members Masud Sadiq and Syed abu Daud, among others, spoke on the occasion.
