THE National Board of Revenue (NBR) has said quite a big number of businessmen listed with various chamber bodies and trade associations are willfully defaulting from paying income tax and avoiding registration of their business with e-TIN numbers which allows the revenue authorities to check tax compliance on random basis. A report in a national daily on Thursday in this regard said alone in the electrical sector, NBR has detected 718 traders who used fake e-TINs to show tax payment while they have no authentic TIN number to run the business. Taking into account the large number of tax defaulters in a single sector, NBR authorities fear, as it appears, the presence of a massive loopholes in income tax payment system in other business sectors as well. The country has over 351 chamber bodies and trade associations so far having over 3,665 registered voters as per the report and in NBR estimate around 20 percent of these businesses are defaulting income tax payment under false tax identification numbers or taking cover of fake e-TIN to keep on defaulting tax payment.
The NBR fears in this background that many members of the trade bodies are not regularly submitting tax returns and in our view a massive tax fraud is at work in most other business sectors where an unholy nexus of business with taxmen make things easier. The report said the revenue authorities have already written to the presidents of all chamber bodies and trade associations including the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) asking their cooperation in sealing defaults and make sure that defaulters get registration of their e-TIN immediately to properly make tax payment or else face closer scrutiny. NBR has demanded quick correction of loopholes while warning the violators of stern punishment.
We are really appalled by the disclosure that around one-fifth businessmen — small or big — either avoiding proper tax payment or using fake e-TIN for the purpose is indicative of big scandal in our tax administration and the question may arise why the NBR was not able to detect it earlier. Moreover, the breaking of the news that a sizable number of business leaders do not pay tax or take cover of fake e-TIN is a shame in itself because they have enough wealth and resources and yet not paying to accumulate unaccounted wealth and income. Now if a large section of businessmen do not pay tax, how the government will fund the national budget with an ever-growing shortfall in revenue collection. Moreover, businessmen are often enjoying various incentive packages including cash incentives while common people always take the brunt of the tax load. Now if they use fraud to avoid tax payment, this is a high crime and must be properly dealt with. We would ask the revenue authorities to find out the tax defaulting cases in all business sectors and force them to pay with arrears.
