Business Desk :
A letter has been issued to declare the fixed and current assets of all the officers of the three major departments under the National Board of Revenue (NBR) – Customs, VAT and Income Tax.
The officials have confirmed that recently such a letter has been sent to each department from the NBR board administration, where they have been asked to submit the accounts of all fixed and current assets in a prescribed form to the board administration office of their respective departments on an urgent basis.
Asked if the allegation of bribery by NBR officials was one of the issues behind this sudden decision, an official of the NBR, who did not want to be named, told that “No, this is not the case this time. This is happening according to the rules of government employees. Moreover, if any NBR official is accused of bribery, it is investigated separately and the NBR is very strict about this.”
The letter states that the government employees under the Public Service Act, 2018, submit the statement of assets of all government officials working in the department or subordinate agencies, create a database of such assets and obtain permission from the concerned ministry to acquire and sell fixed property. This letter was sent to all the officers and employees of NBR on January 25 as part of the implementation of the decision of the Ministry of Public Administration.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the organization had spoken to the media a few days ago about the allegations of taking bribes against its officials.
NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem said: “They (Various business organizations) are complaining in their own platforms or associations but they don’t complain to us directly. It is not that we do not have irregularities.”
AB Mirza Azizul Islam, economist and former financial adviser to the caretaker government, told that it should take stricter measures to update the assets submitted by all the employees of the state every year.
He said: “We have a lot of good laws; one of them is to submit the statement of assets of government officials. However, many government agencies do not seem to be interested in implementing this law as it often goes against them.”
“I don’t think it’s very difficult, especially for those who pay income tax. If the general people can do it every year, why can’t NBR officials or government employees do the same without waiting every five years,” he added. At present, the number of approved posts in the Customs, VAT and Income Tax Departments under NBR is 22,123, but the number of working employees is about only 13 thousand.
The government servants (Conduct) rules stipulate those public officials must submit asset declarations and obtain permission to acquire or sell immovable property every five years.
