Michal Krejza, head of cooperation, delegation of the European Union on Monday hoped that online tax return submission might increase to 1.5 million from 0.5 million in Bangladesh this year.
鈥榃e hope that the number of people using this service centre (funded by the EU) and the number of people submitting electronic tax returns will rise quickly,鈥� he said.
Krejza said this at the official launching of the new e-Return Service Centre at the NBR Bhaban in the capital鈥檚 Agargaon area.
The service centre, which is operated by National Board of Revenue officials trained in service centre and e-Return system intricacies, is funded by the European Union as part of their Public Financial Management Programme.
Md Abdur Rahman Khan, chairman of the NBR, and Michal Krejza formally opened this new service centre.
Krejza said that last year the number of e-return submission was about half a million which was actually very low for a big country like Bangladesh. 鈥楤ut, in this year, it will reach one million to one and a half million, which would be a tremendous increase,鈥� he said.
The new service centre is dedicated to supporting taxpayers in the use of the e-Return tax submission system and key part of NBR鈥檚 mission to make it easier for taxpayers to submit their tax returns.
Krejza also said that the EU had been supporting the country for many years, adding: 鈥楴ow you see a particularly important window of opportunity of reforms.鈥�
He went on saying, 鈥榃e鈥檙e very happy that the NBR chairman has very good ideas on how to drive reforms in the NBR and obviously these reforms are absolutely fundamental for further development of Bangladesh, because it is through NBR that the money comes to finance reforms鈥�.
Regarding the service centre, he said that they had been financing it now for two to three years while they were happy that it had moved into the new building of NBR as it was somewhere else until now. 鈥業t is now much easier for the centre to operate...So, keep up this good cooperation,鈥� he added.
Senior officials of the NBR were also present in the event.
The e-Return website (etaxnbr.gov.bd) contains a detailed help facility as well as a user manual and frequently asked questions.
For further assistance, the Service centre can be reached dialling 09643717171 on weekdays from 09:00 to 17:00. A ticketing function is accessible from within the 鈥楥ontact鈥� section of e-Return system, where taxpayers can report a problem or lodge a query related to the system (https://ticket.etaxnbr.gov.bd/).
