National Board of Revenue chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan on Tuesday said that the payment of instalments of the domestic and foreign debts and interest on these loans had become a heavy burden to the country.
He made the statement while speaking at a pre-budget discussion as the chief guest in Rajshahi on the day.
鈥榃e have turned into a debt-ridden nation. For the past 52 to 53 years, we have been expanding our budget every year by taking loans. The payment of instalments of these loans 鈥� whether domestic or foreign 鈥� and covering the interest on these loans have become a heavy burden to the country,鈥� he said.
The Rajshahi Chambers of Commerce and Industry organised the discussion at its conference room where businesses and entrepreneurs attended.
According to a Bangladesh Bank report, the overall external debt amount of Bangladesh went up to $104.36 billion in the July-September period of the current financial year.
The NBR chairman also said that the amount of money they collected as taxes was almost equal to the amount they had to forgo, which economists referred to as tax expenditure or exemptions.
鈥楾hese exemptions are widely misused, which is why our revenue collection is not increasing. Meanwhile, the size of our economy is expanding day by day, and our demands are growing significantly,鈥� he said.
The main problem is that the country has a large number of people who have the capability to pay taxes, but they do not do so, said Abdur Rahman.
鈥楥urrently, we have 11.2 million taxpayer identification number holders, but only 4 million file tax returns. Among them, about 2.5 to 2.6 million either pay very little tax or only the minimum tax. Meanwhile, we are unable to track down the rest. Now, we are working on this matter very seriously,鈥� he said.
Currently only 5,50,000 businesses have value-added tax registration, which is totally unacceptable as the number of businesses exceeds 30 million, the NBR chairman said.
鈥榃e are now conducting extensive operations. Our goal is to increase the number of VAT registration to 6 to 8 million,鈥� he said.
Abdur Rahman also said that they would reduce the excise duty in the forthcoming national budget by improving their operational efficiency, preventing tax evasion and expanding the tax net.
He also assured the businesses that they would set the tax on turnover exceeding Tk聽30 million to a tolerable level 鈥� either by reducing the rate or increasing the amount to make it more manageable.
RCCI president Masudur Rahman Rinku chaired the discussion.
