National Board of Revenue chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan on Thursday categorically said that the government was firm on facilitating the local producers.
鈥業n principle, we have said that there shall be a duty gap between our manufacturers and commercial importers,鈥� he said.聽
Abdur said this while speaking at a pre-budget meeting held at the conference room of the revenue building in the capital Dhaka.
The revenue board chief said that the NBR must remove all the barriers from the way of honest and compliant business people.
鈥楤ut just remember one thing, if anyone misuses any facility, that person will not be allowed to do business in Bangladesh anymore,鈥� he warned.聽
The NBR chairman also mentioned that his organisation was ready to do everything for the sake of removing hurdles for trade and commerce in the country aiming to gain greater revenue collection.聽
Expressing dissatisfaction over the lower number of value added tax registrations in the country, Abdur said that there was no reason to have a VAT registered number below six lakh.聽
鈥楾his number should have crossed the one crore mark many days back,鈥� he said.
In this connection, Abdur said that to increase the VAT-registered business entities, the NBR installed an electronic fiscal device of its own and later gave it to a third party after getting impressive results.
鈥楤ut that also failed to fare better. We鈥檙e now working on various types of alternatives, you will see the results within the shortest possible time,鈥� he said.聽
The NBR chairman said that he was under pressure from the development partners due to the very low tax-GDP ratio of the country.聽
鈥業n the morning and evening, the development partners are pressing me for this very low ratio. The reality is very much true, no country in the world collects such lower revenue,鈥� he said.聽
Bangladesh鈥檚 tax-to-GDP ratio stands at 7.3 per cent, significantly lower than neighbouring countries like India (12 per cent), Nepal (17.5 per cent), Bhutan (12.3 per cent) and Pakistan (7.5 per cent). This low ratio hampers the government鈥檚 ability to invest in critical sectors such as health, education, and social protection, thereby affecting economic growth and perpetuating poverty and inequality.聽
The NBR is actively working to improve this ratio by targeting tax evasion and increasing compliance. Currently, out of approximately 11.4 million taxpayer identification number holders, only 4 million have submitted their income tax returns.
Efforts are underway to address this gap and enhance revenue collection.
