Speakers at a seminar on Saturday urged the government for ensuring accountability and transparency in public expenditure so that the taxpayers could be brought under the budgetary process.
Emphasizing the need of ‘tax justice,’ they also sought proper policy measures to let taxpayers know how and where their taxes are being used apart from ensuring transparency in realising taxes.
There is a lack of transparency in terms of ‘budgetary expenditure’, which needs to be addressed so that people feel encouraged to pay tax willingly, they observed.
“Transparency is a key tool to establish accountability, fight corruption and secure a fairer tax system,” said Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of Transparency International (TIB)
Bangladesh, while speaking at the seminar.
The seminar titled ‘Unveiling Tax, Tackling Poverty: Some Policy Considerations’ was held at Cirdap auditorium in the city organized by The Action Aid Bangladesh.
M Hafizuddin Khan, former adviser to the caretaker government chaired the function.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman said: “We need to ensure tax-justice both in terms of tax realisation and utilisation of realised taxes. People have the right to know where and how their taxes are being spent.”
Besides, the government should develop a modern and transparent tax regime domestically as well as automatic exchange of information internationally in order to fight tax avoidance as well as corruption.
He also said that people will feel encouraged and come up with enthusiasm to pay more tax if trust can be built among them that they would be able to know where and how their taxes are being spent.
“Though Bangladesh has improved in terms of national budget ‘transparency index’ due to increasing participation in budget formulation process, the country legs behind as there is no transparency in terms of budget expenditure,” he observed.
Commenting on Bangladesh’s ‘defense budget’, he said. “Defense is for people’s interest. People have the right to know what is being procured.”
Dr Iftekharuzzaman also said, a government system with accountability will get stronger footing if transparency is ensured in budget expenditure. “We have to speak for it.”
M Hafizuddin Khan said, ‘equity’ is one of the fundamentals of taxation which remains missing in Bangladesh. “People have the right to know how they’re being benefited by paying tax and where their paid taxes are being spent.”
He said, we all need to join the campaign for ‘tax-justice’ as each taxpayer wants to see transparency in revenue expenditure and wants to know where their taxes are being spent.
While presenting key note, Asgar Ali Sabri, Director, Programme, Policy and Campaign of Action Aid laid emphasis on enhancing capacity of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in line with global tax dynamics.
He also demanded wider policy space for civil society to engage in the tax discourse and participate in the tax policy formulation as well as the revenue raising and redistribution processes. Executive Director of Policy Research Institute (PRI), Bangladesh Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Dr Iftekharuzzaman and ActionAid Bangladesh Country Director Farah Kabir, among others, addressed the seminar. Former Adviser of the Caretaker government M Hafizuddin Khan was in the chair.
