The government is likely give scopes for legalising undisclosed money by paying 15 per cent tax in the forthcoming FY25.
Calling such scopes unethical, economists said that the scopes provided earlier failed to yield major breakthrough to bring about untaxed money into the mainstream economy.
The finance ministry officials said that the National Board of Revenue was likely to include the undisclosed money legalisation scopes without asking sources of income among the new financial year measures after a gap of three years.
Last time in FY21, the NBR offered similar scopes for errant taxpayers to invest in stock markets, real estate and declaring untaxed assets by charging only 10 per cent tax.
Some 11,859 taxpayers paying Tk 2,064 crore in tax availed the amnesty to legalese over 20,000 crore聽 despite widespread criticisms that such scopes were biased against the honest taxpayers who are paying more than 10 per cent tax.
In FY22, the NBR discontinued the opportunity.
But, it introduced another scheme in FY23鈥攔epatriation of cash and cash equivalents, bank deposits as well as notes and convertible securities by paying a 7.0 per cent tax鈥攂ut nobody availed the offer.
Finance ministry officials said that the government was still optimistic that offering such scopes will
succeed in injecting substantial amount of untaxed money into the mainstream economy.
Besides, it will mobilise higher income tax since the county鈥檚 tax-to-GDP ratio is said to be one of the lowest in the world, they said.
Finance minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali will announce the new budget on June 6 in parliament聽 against the backdrop of a prolonged financial downturn featured by a decade-high inflation and severe shortage of dollars.听听听听听听聽
He is also facing the challenges of generating revenue in line with the condition from the International Monetary Fund under the $4.7 billion loan programme Bangladesh entered to tackle the crisis.听听听
- Hafizuddin Khan, former chairman of the Transparency International Bangladesh, told 抖阴精品 that the unethical scopes had been given by the successive governments in the past.
鈥楤ut those did not produce any positive outcomes,鈥� he said.
He noted that the continuation of such scopes provided undisclosed money holders a kind of safeguard from legal challenges.
In 2007鈥�2008 and 2008鈥�2009 under the military-backed caretaker government, around Tk 9,600 crore, the previous highest amount of undisclosed money was injected into the mainstream economy.
While calling the measure as immoral, former NBR chairman Abdul Mazid said that scopes for legalising undisclosed incomes and assets had been offered in various forms since the country鈥檚 independence.
Only around Tk 2,000 crore worth of undisclosed money was injected into the economy between 1971 and 2006.
Often, the scopes were given without asking sources which is humiliating for the honest taxpayers, said the former NBR chairman.
Economists said that repeated offers for legalising undisclosed money encouraged incomes from unethical sources such as underhand dealings, rent seeking, loan thefts and smuggling.
Releasing an update on Bangladesh in the past month, the World Bank criticised the government for providing the opportunity to taxpayers with undisclosed assets to legalise their wealth, by paying tax at a rate lower than that charged from the honest taxpayers, and investing the money in the stock market, real estate and other certain sectors.
The WB observed that such measures could be beneficial in bringing some undisclosed assets under the system, but continuation of such policies demotivated honest and regular taxpayers and encouraged tax evaders to continue their misdeeds by creating an expectation that they would be able to legalise their wealth.
It asked the government to build trust among honest taxpayers and those who were willing to pay their fair share which it said would support revenue mobilisation.
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