Finance division asks NBR to hold 3 tax fairs a year

Finance division asked the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to arrange three tax fairs in a year to extend the existing tax net as the government has taken an all-out effort to speed up the revenue collection from the beginning of the fiscal year.

An official of the finance division said they have already asked the NBR chairman for arranging tax fair three times a year.

NBR has been arranging tax fairs since Awami League-led grand alliance government came to power in 2009.

After setting up of Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD) total earning of the National Board of Revenue will be hike by many folds, the official said.

The official also said revenue collecting authority will gradually procure around 100,000 EFDs.

Sources in the finance division said a special International Monetary Fund team, expert on the prevention of tax dodging, will visit Bangladesh within the next two months to advise officials of the NBR.

Last Thursday, the finance minister in his budget speech said several fresh strategies of the NBR which will help to achieve the big revenue target of Tk 3,30,000 crore in the proposed budget for 2020-21 fiscal.

In order to increase the revenue in the next fiscal year, the government has adopted several strategies including tax rebates on online returns, investment facility for black money, increase in tax at source of garments and 50 per cent penalty to prevent money laundering.

Minister has also sought to fix the withholding tax at 0.5 per cent for all exports including the readymade garments, which was 0.25 per cent before.

Besides, in the proposed budget it introduced aid for an investment of undisclosed or black money to bank deposits, savings certificates, shares, bonds or any other securities on paying 10 per cent taxes. 

Former finance adviser to past caretaker government AB Mirza Azizul Islam said, “It is just rhetoric of the government that it will pin down all the tax dodgers when lax monitoring and lenience of tax officials let big tax evaders off scot-free,” he said.

Mirza also said the amount of VAT and tax may be increased a little if Electronic Fiscal Devices are set up.

Distinguished Research Fellow of Centre Policy Dialogue Prof Mustafizur Rahman said with the pandemic is most likely to continue raging next year, the government has set 56 per cent higher revenue target for next fiscal year, which is impossible and unrealistic.

“GDP is 8.2 per cent, inflation is 5.4 per cent then 14 per cent is a natural growth of revenue. Then if you put lots of efforts, it may go up to 20 to 21 per cent, but how come revenue target for such a disastrous year has been set at 56 per cent," he wondered.

ask/wi