National Board of Revenue chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan on Monday said that the revenue board was pledge-bound to supplement the government鈥檚 efforts to build a discrimination-free and corruption-free country talking alongside all concerned.
鈥楧efinitely, we want to build a discrimination-free and corruption-free Bangladesh and the NBR is pledge-bound in this regard. We鈥檒l accomplish the task taking alongside all,鈥� he said.
Rahman said this while talking to reporters after the official launching of the new e-Return Service Centre at the NBR Bhaban in the capital鈥檚 Agargaon area.
Md Abdur Rahman Khan, along with Michal Krejza, head of cooperation, delegation of the EU to Bangladesh, formally opened this new service centre.
Asked how long it would take to accomplish such task, Abdur Rahman said that it was hard to say how long it would take, adding, 鈥榃e鈥檙e fine tuning everything gradually.鈥�
Answering to a question on what would be the consequences of those who have already availed the facility for whitening undisclosed money before the interim government scrapped such provision, the NBR chairman said that if any taxpayer availed such facility before the provision was repealed, then he would get such facility as per the law.
鈥榃e won鈥檛 go beyond the jurisdiction of law. As long as the law was in force, the facility was legal,鈥� he added.
Abdur Rahman said that when the provision was scrapped by this interim government, then it became illegal from that moment.
In replying to another question, the revenue board boss suggested the taxpayers make their mobile phone SIMs biometric and thus exercise submission of their returns through online.
Out of the country鈥檚 total taxpayers of some 1.04 crore, he said that some 44 lakh usually submitted their returns. 鈥榃e want to raise the number of returns, if they submit returns online, then it will be easier for them,鈥� he added.
鈥榃e want to hear directly from the taxpayers what kind of problems they are facing while submitting returns through online and then we鈥檒l take action promptly,鈥� he said.
When asked about measures taken by the NBR to avert tax evasion, Abdur Rahman said that it depended on the capacity as it was not possible to deal with all things at a time.
鈥榃e鈥檙e giving priority to those cases and individuals against whom we鈥檙e getting specific data and information from various sources like media and intelligence and such efforts will definitely continue against the corporate taxpayers. It鈥檚 routine work actually...it鈥檚 not possible in one go,鈥� he said.
About the performances of tax zones on the drives against the large tax evaders, he said that the time had just started after the formation of the interim government as it required some time for taking necessary preparations.
Responding to another question, the revenue board chief said that the NBR had some image crisis that when it selected tax files for scrutinising, then quite often the exercise becomes not objective. 鈥榃e often receive such kind of objections from the taxpayers. For this, we want to select auditing of tax files without the intervention of human to avert any question. So, we鈥檒l make such selection through digitised method.鈥�
He said that the common philosophy was that they would trace out those who evade tax and thus take legal action and bring back the revenues to the government exchequer.
When asked whether the tariff on various commodities would be reviewed, he said that it would be looked into during the budgetary process.
鈥楽ome reforms will take place in the revenue sector and those won鈥檛 be carried out in one go rather gradually,鈥� he said.
About the justification of existing tax-free income ceiling, the NBR chief said that if the ceiling was raised further, then a big chunk of taxpayers would go out of the tax net since it is very small here representing only 5.2 per cent of the total population which is 23 per cent in India.
鈥極ut of the total taxpayers of some 1.04 crore, some 30 lakh to 34 lakh taxpayers do not pay tax,鈥� he said adding that if the number was reduced further, then the tax collection would decline more.
Responding to another question, he said that the government was very much sincere in reducing the backlog of tax related cases as a separate bench had already been formed in this regard with the High Court as well as the ADR initiative was also paying off.
About the service centre, he said that through availing service from this centre, the taxpayers would not need to go to the tax office to take due services as well as they can print the TIN certificates.
鈥業t鈥檚 really a user-friendly system,鈥� he said wondering why the total number of taxpayers submitting e-returns did not reach one crore over the last four years since such service was launched in 2021.
Directing the concerned revenue board officials to make this e-return popular, Abdur Rahman, also the secretary of the Internal Resources Division, said that they would resolve the existing problems and barriers in the way of this service with support from the EU.
鈥楳ake this e-return popular as it is easy and safe...this is environment friendly by all means...It also saves time and cost,鈥� he told the tax officials.
Abdur Rahman also urged all to submit their returns online in a bid to avail their desired services with ease and comfort.
