BSS, Dhaka :
Commerce minister Tofail Ahmed Tuesday said top income taxpayers will be given CIP (Commercially Important Person) status aiming to encourage people to pay tax for the development of the country.
“Revenue earning will have to be boosted by increasing the number of taxpayers . . . we’ll declare top taxpayers as CIP as our move to increase the number of taxpayers in the country,” said the commerce minister while speaking at the opening of the week long income tax fair here.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) organized the fair, an annual event, to create awareness among the people for payment of income tax. NBR member (tax administration) Md Bashir Uddin chaired the opening session while NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain spoke on the occasion as special guest.
Speaking on the session as the chief guest, Tofail Ahmed suggested the tax department officials to carry out their responsibility cordially and said it must be ensured that the taxpayers are not harassed by tax officials.
He said only 18 lakh people out of country’s 16 crore population have TIN and the number of regular taxpayer is only 12 lakh. Contribution of income tax to the national budget was only 10 percent in 1972-73, he said, adding that now the government is making a huge budget but the contribution of income tax is still 32 percent.
Tofail said income tax fair is creating awareness among the people and encouraging them to pay income tax. He hoped that contribution of income tax to the budget would soar to 40 percent by 2021.
NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain said the income tax fair has been organized to give people service. It will also help dispel fears from people about income tax, he said and urged people to visit the fair and take income tax payment related services.
