THE National Board of Revenue (NBR) has asked the income tax commissioners to conduct raids against foreigners working illegally in the country and evading payment of tax. They have been also asked to swoop on their employers as per reports published in several national dailies on Thursday. The budget for the current fiscal year 2015-16, has clapped renewed restriction on employing foreigners without work permits with heavy penalties and provision of imprisonment for employers for violating the law. The NBR has asked the local employers not to employ unauthorized foreign nationals and requested the trade bodies to take steps for compliance of the law. Income tax commissioners have been asked by the revenue authorities to hold the employers of unauthorized foreigners accountable and apply the tax law to realize the unpaid tax with penalties. This is why they must take vigorous inspection, investigation and intelligence gathering on the number of unauthorized foreigners at a business house and then carry out the raid to apply the law and accompanied penalty. Though there is no official data, taxmen estimate suggest that there are several lakh illegal foreigners, mainly from neighbouring India, Pakistan, China and Sri Lanka working in the country’s garment and ICT sectors. They also include illegal foreigners from African and Western countries working in buying houses, liaison offices of multinational companies. Telecommunications, financial houses and joint-venture companies are also providing them employment. It is true that a number of foreigners are working here with permission from Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) and Board of Investment (BoI). Many of them are also at work with permission from the NGO Bureau. But most noticeably, hundreds of foreigners are staying in the country with temporary visa. They leave the country on expiry of their stay and come again with renewal of visa. They are working with their employers and both sides are enjoying tax evading benefits. The employers are not paying tax against the employment while the foreigners remain outside the taxnet enjoying the entire salary free from tax. It is a nexus between the employers and employees and the state exchequer is the loser. News reports say several lakhs Indians are working in Bangladesh at the moment and their remittance run over US$ 3-4 billion annually as per reports from the Indian sources. The fact is that most such employment is unreported to the government and the income is also going tax free. Remittances to many other countries also involves hefty sums of money without paying tax to the government. In fact, such employers must be identified and punished and the employees must be made legal and paying tax to stay in Bangladesh. In our view NBR has taken the right step, though belated and it must be effectively carried out to bring discipline in the country’s revenue administration.
