Staff Reporter :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman, Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, on Thursday said that they are working sincerely to bring visible changes with a view to creating revenue-friendly environment in collecting revenue.
“As part of the changes, we have taken various initiatives to bring transparency and accountability in our work, widen tax net, automate the board, and to ease the process so that the people can pay taxes without
any hazard,” he said while speaking at pre-budget discussion with the Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF) virtually.
Muneem said, “People expect that the NBR will assist the taxpayers and will punish the revenue evaders. We are trying hard to create such environment. You (people) will see the visible changes soon.”
“As part of expansion of the tax net, we have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). MoUs will also be signed with the city corporations,” the NBR chief said.
“We have also taken measures to collect data side-by-side tax survey to widen the tax net for the sake of the country’s economy,” he added.
“Besides, we will utilise secondary sources to expand the tax net. NBR is partnering with government and non-government organisations to bring the people under tax net who have taxable income but are out of the tax net,” he added.
Muneem further said they will prioritise local industries in the upcoming budget to strengthen the economy of the country.
Laying emphasis on recruiting agents in the Upazila level to widen the tax net, the ERF President Sharmeen Rinvy proposed to increase the tax-free income limit of individual taxpayers to Tk 4 lakh from the existing Tk 3 lakh as the people’s income has been reduced due to the ongoing pandemic situation.
S M Rashidul Islam, General Secretary of the ERF, suggested NBR to take preparation for overcoming the possible challenges in the context of becoming a developing country from Least Developed Country (LDC).
“Bangladesh will have to go for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) or Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) in order to survive in export trade, especially in the case of future withdrawal of duty-free facilities. So, NBR has to take preparation from now,” he said.
Alleging the existing black money investment policy is discouraging legal taxpayers and encouraging illicit income, he proposed to amend the law to make only legally earned undisclosed income taxable.
The ERF also presented several proposals, including speeding up reformation of tax collection activities, reducing tax related complexities to attract investment, forming public-private tax committee, and review meetings on implementation of revenue decisions, in every three months.
NBR Members Md Alamgir Hossain, Syed Golam Kibria and Md Masud Sadique, among others, participated in the discussion.
