Experts on Sunday said that digitalisation was needed to check tax evasion in the country.
They also said that if Bangladesh could not improve its internal resource management, the country would become prone to economic dependence.
They said these during a dialogue titled 鈥楧igitalisation of the Taxation System in Bangladesh: The Next Frontier for Higher Resource Mobilisation鈥� organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue in partnership with the European Union in the capital Dhaka on the day.
CPD distinguished fellow Mustafizur Rahman, in his key presentation, said that the country had to implement all annual development plans through internal or external loans due to low revenue-GDP ratio.
鈥榃e should focus on how we could generate surplus in our revenue budget, which we are currently unable to do鈥�, he said.
鈥楢s we are graduating from the LDC list, loans are getting costlier鈥�, he added.
Mustafizur showed in his presentation that about 20 per cent of revenue expenditure in the financial year 2023-24 was done on servicing interest payments for domestic and foreign borrowings only.
He said that, in Bangladesh, tax elasticity and tax buoyancy had been low and digitalisation could improve the situation.
Digitalisation could help detect tax avoidance and reduce tax evasion, he said.
鈥楶otential increase in tax collection by spending an additional unit of money through various measures, including digitalisation of the taxation system, is the highest in Bangladesh among the developing countries鈥�, he further said.
Mustafizur also said that, over the years, the government of Bangladesh, finance ministry and the National Board of Revenue had taken multiple steps to digitalise the tax system but the outcomes remained less than satisfactory.
The CPD recommended embedding technology driven solutions in all of the NBR鈥檚 activities, capacity building of the NBR and multiple other steps towards the digitalisation of the taxation system.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, a CPD distinguished fellow, said that taxpayers feared that arbitrary use of power in the taxation system might put them in a position to be harassed, which could be solved by digitalisation.
鈥榃e are talking about digitalisation in the taxation system, but only revenue earning is getting focused. We have to ensure transparency in the expenditures and proper facility to the taxpayers through digitalisation to encourage them to pay taxes鈥�, he said.
Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, chairman of the NBR, said that the NBR鈥檚 helplessness was revealed when the budget was announced every year.
鈥榃ithout noticing the capacity we have, we are given a target for revenue collection. Without building the capacity first, if the target is increased every year, it becomes tough to achieve said target鈥�, he said.
State minister for finance Waseqa Ayesha Khan said that the current government was trying to make smart Bangladesh from digital Bangladesh.
鈥楲ast year, we announced some exemption from corporate taxes if businesses made bank transactions. But many people objected to that. How can we achieve our target if big business people want to make transactions with cash money?鈥� she added
Fahmida Khatun, executive director of CPD, chaired the session, with other government officials and experts present in the dialogue.
