The National Board of Revenue has made it mandatory for certain public and private service holders including bankers and officials of mobile phone operators to file their income tax returns electronically.
It gave directives in this regard on Tuesday and said that all public officials and employees of the Dhaka South City Corporation, Dhaka North City Corporation, and metropolitan areas in Gazipur and Narayaganj would have to comply with the new system.
The compulsory filing of electronic income tax returns has also been made applicable for officials and employees of all scheduled banks and mobile phone operators such as Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Airtel and Teletalk.
Besides, the NBR has asked officials and employees of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, British American Tobacco Company Limited, Marico Bangladesh, Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited, Bata Shoe Company (Bangladesh) Ltd, and Nestle Bangladesh Limited to maintain the same directive.
NBR chairman Abdur Rahman Khan said that the steps were taken to fulfill a long-standing demand by compliant taxpayers to ensure contact-free tax payments.
Besides, other taxpayers who are not brought under the compulsory system will be encouraged to file income taxpayers鈥� returns online, he said.
The NBR chairman said that they would gradually include more corporate entities under the compulsory submission of returns in the future.
A previous move in FY20 to introduce filing tax returns electronically with Tk 2,000 rebate was not materialized due to technical glitches in the software.
The NBR which has been struggling to augment higher revenue because of its narrow income tax base is forced to depend on indirect taxes mostly over the years to meet its annual target.
NBR officials said that, out of 1.04 crore Taxpayers鈥� Identification Numbers, only 43 lakh TINs were filed in FY24.
Bangladesh has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world despite making high economic growth over the past decade.