Staff Reporter :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem on Tuesday said that they would apply electronic payment (e-payment) system from July 1 this year to collect import tax if it surpasses Tk2 lakh.
“The measure was taken to ensure transparency and accountability in revenue collection,” the NBR chief said while speaking at a seminar at the NBR conference room on the occasion of the International Customs Day 2021.
The NBR also awarded the World Customs Organization (WCO) Certificates of Merit to 17 officials and three institutions for their outstanding contributions to customs last year.
Muneem said that a roadmap has been prepared by bringing the NBR under automation to ensure transparency in the revenue collection process.
“Our software is ready. This rule has been made mandatory from April 1 at ICD Customs House, Kamalapur. We have taken initiative to procure 13 scanners to ensure fast processing and transparency of export-import,” he said.
Referring to the responsibility of the officials and employees involved in the collection of revenue – including customs – even during the pandemic, the NBR chairman said, “Customs and VAT collection activities have not stopped even for a minute to keep the wheel of the country’s economy running by keeping the supply chain intact.”
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, who was connected virtually, said, “More business-friendly policies should be adopted to strengthen the revenue collection.”
“The NBR needs to meet the needs of the traders. Then traders will also meet the demand of the NBR. Because traders have objections about the NBR,” the minister said.
Claiming the country’s GDP growth at the highest level in the world in the last ten years, the finance minister said, “According to the plan up to 2035, the revenue collection will have to increase gradually. I think the NBR will win the challenge in the future.”
Suggesting expanding the tax net without increasing the tax rate, FBCCI President Sheikh Fazle Fahim said, “We will need to collect much more revenue if we graduate from the least developed countries. Then the tax-to-GDP ratio must be increased.”
In the seminar, Kazi Mostafizur Rahman, Project Director of VAT Online, Mohammad Moazzem Hossain, Commissioner of the Dhaka Customs House and Mohammad Neyazur Rahman, Additional Director General of the Customs Intelligence, have been awarded the WCO Certificate of Merit for contribution to keep the import-export and internal supply chain normal during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The other awardees are AKM Nurul Huda Azad, NBR’s First Secretary of the NBR, AKM Zahid Hossain, Senior Systems Analyst, Abilin Sangma, Deputy Commissioner of the Dhaka North Commissionerate, Md Samsad Hossain, Revenue Officer of the Sylhet Commissionerate, Mohammad Shafiqul Islam, Assistant Revenue Officer of the Dhaka Customs House, Md Yakut Zahid, Assistant Revenue Officer of the ICD Customs and Atiqur Rahman, Assistant Revenue Officer of the Chittagong Customs House.
