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State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam has said the country’s revenue-oriented tax system should be changed to a development-oriented one to facilitate development.
He came up with the observation while addressing a webinar titled “Evaluation of Draft Income Tax Law” and organised by the International Business Forum of Bangladesh (IBFB) on Saturday.
Many countries of the world had become developed by focusing on a development-oriented tax system, he said.
He said tax collection sources should be expanded while effectiveness should be ensured to keep pace with the country’s development.
“Sometimes it is needed to provide tax exemptions. Now the focus should be on discussing with stakeholders how development can be facilitated, and tax collection be modernised.”
Alam said more and more people were getting rich in the country even in villages and tax should be collected from there as well. Every person above the poverty line should be brought under the tax net, he said.
He further said the colonial effects of tax collection still remained in the country.
“But that should not be the case. Tax collection should be modernised with the pace of modernisation. We are also thinking about providing the National Board of Revenue (NBR) with more responsibilities.”
IBFB President Humayun Rashid said, “The IBFB recommended long ago that taxpayers be given some sort of documentation related to the national ID. It will show that they are taxpayers. They will then feel proud as citizens and also as taxpayers.”
“The authorities partly implemented our recommendation and introduced the commercially important person (CIP) certification to recognise top taxpayers, which is something we really appreciate,” he added.
Former NBR chairman Dr Muhammad Abdul Mazid presented the keynote and said the new income tax law was made in a structured way but it was not universal.
“It is not expected in a democratic country. There is still an impact of colonialism. Tax collection areas are also limited,” he said.
