Home ›› 11 Feb 2021 ›› World Biz
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today said that there is a need to improve the overall tax management
including the incorporation of digital tax payment system to increase revenue collection.
“We’ve been able to remove the ‘tax fear’ which did persist among country’s people in the past. People now want to pay tax,” he said.
The Finance Minister was addressing a function virtually as chief guest marking the distribution of best taxpayer honour and tax cards held at the National Board of Revenue (NBR) building in the city’s Segunbagicha area.
State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain spoke on the occasion as special guest chaired by NBR chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem.
Former communications minister Syed Abul Hossain, NBR member (tax policy) M Alamgir Hossain, British American Tobacco CEO Sehzad Munir, Grameenphone CEO Yasir Azman, Akij Group managing director Sheikh
Bashiruddin, Unilever, Bangladesh CEO Kedar Lele, spoke, among others, at the function.
Stressing the need for bringing all eligible people under the tax net, Kamal said, “We want to bring all eligible people under the tax net, we hope that the tax net will be expanded further if the rates are reduced rationally. New taxpayers will be brought under the tax net.”
Noting that Bangladesh is still lagging behind in terms of tax-GDP ratio compared to other economies as it is still hovering around 10 percent, he said this tax-GDP ratio should be at least 16 to 17
percent. “But, the difference is much higher……we’ll have to build digital revenue management to bridge this gap.”
The Finance Minister said there is a need to go for automation to address the weaknesses of the revenue management.
“Nothing should be in place through which revenue collection is done physically, rather digital payment system should be introduced in such a way so that information could go directly to the server of NBR once tax is paid by the taxpayers,” he added.
Kamal also stressed the need for installing more scanner machines at the ports.
“Scanners should be in place so that none can do import and export operations giving false declarations. If it is done, then the trend of bringing one product giving declaration of other product as well as the trend of tax evasion will be reduced. At the same time, the revenue collection will also increase,” he added.
Extending thanks to those who have attained the honour of best taxpayers despite the coronavirus pandemic, the Finance Minister said these taxpayers could play much bigger role towards mobilizing more
revenues and thus motivate the other taxpayers to pay tax.
State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain said the government was able to deliver a large size budget since the people of the country came forward in large numbers to pay tax.
“But, we’ll have to expand further the tax net,” he said putting emphasis on further simplifying the tax payment system including submission of tax returns.
NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem said that work is underway to move forward the automation process including developing software to reach the tax-GDP ratio into a satisfactory position.
Side by side, support is being taken from various intelligence agencies to get information about the taxpayers from the secondary sources.
He said no tax or VAT office remained shut for a single day despite the pandemic while the revenue board officials have worked relentlessly keeping their lives at stake during this pandemic in order to keep operational the trade and commerce and wheels of the
country’s economy.
Farhad Hossain handed over honour certificates and tax cards to five best taxpayers at individual level and five best taxpayers at company level at the function.
(Source: BSS)
