21,499 corporate cos filed tax returns till March

Only 21,499 companies, out of the around 2 lakhs registered with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in the country, have paid taxes to the revenue board till March 31 in the ongoing fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23).

The latest statistics released by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) as of March – as the provisional statistics of revenue collection is yet to be ready till April – showed that about 11 per cent of all the companies with Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs) have filed their tax return.

In a bid to increase corporate return submission, the NBR has extended the deadline for corporate tax return submission for tax year 2022-23 till June 15.

The deadline has been extended only for those corporate taxpayers who have applied for an extra period, according to a NBR notification issued on Monday.

Taxpayers will not have to pay any fines during this period, it said.

There are around 2,81,727 public and private companies registered with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) under the commerce ministry.

According to NBR data, around 11 per cent out of total registered companies under RJSC, or about 15 per cent companies with TINs, paid their taxes last year and the rest of the corporations have evaded tax, putting the NBR under a shortfall trend in revenue collection.

NBR sources said only 29,680 companies submitted their income tax returns in FY22. In the current fiscal, the tax administrator collected Tk 2,25,509 crore from income tax, value-added tax and import duty in June-March period, growing by 8.32 per cent compared to the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

Though the revenue collection increased, the revenue board still lagged behind Tk 29,008 crore against its actual target of Tk 2,54,517 crore during the first nine months of FY23, according to data from the NBR