Finance Minister AMA Muhith has asked the deputy commissioners to take an initiative to find out the new taxpayers outside the major cities across as number of tax-payers are still low in the rural areas comparing to the urban areas.
The minister came with the directives at the ongoing “Deputy Commissioners Conference 2015,” which began at an auditorium of the cabinet division in the secretariat in the city yesterday.
Pointing at the allegation that the member of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), customs and VAT officials do not coordinate with the deputy commissioners to raise the number of the taxpayers at the district levels, Muhith also urged the deputy commissioners to help in the implementation of the current fiscal year budget.
“Deputy Commissioners should have special initiatives to achieve the target of the National Board of Revenue,’’ he added.
A deputy commissioner told the conference that they would identify 10,000 new taxpayers in their respective areas in line with the previous survey of NBR that revealed that the total taxpayers could be increased to 18 lakh.
According to the National Board of Revenue, the total number of taxpayers is now only 12 lakh that will increase up to 30 lakh by the end of fiscal year 2018-2019.
NBR has already set up 85 new tax offices at various Upazillas while all the 488 Upazillas will come under NBR network within the next couple of years.