The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is now conducting a door-to-door survey with a plan to bring half a million new taxpayers under the tax net in the fiscal year 2015-16.
The survey titled “Income Tax Survey 2015” started across the country as part of the tax authorities plan to bring at least 320,000 taxpayers under the taxation net by the end of this fiscal year.
As part of the move, the Dhaka Taxes Zone-4 yesterday organised “tax net expansion and taxpayers awareness meeting” in a local community center at Keraniganj, outskirts of Dhaka.
The NBR organised the programme as part of its move to explore the revenue potentiality of the “growth centers” across the country as part of expansion of its tax base to meet the gigantic revenue collection target of Tk176,370 crore for the ongoing fiscal year. Out of the amount, the major part of Tk65,932 crore is expected to receive from income tax source.
Dhaka Taxes Zone 4 Commissioner M Alamgir Hossain presided over the meeting while State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid attended the programme as chief guest.
Addressing the meeting, Nasrul Hamid said, “Only 1.8m people are registered as taxpayers in a country of 160m people. Among them, only 1.2m people pay income tax annually.”
According to the income tax law, people having over Tk2 lakh have to pay income tax annually.
Many people are eligible for income tax payment, but they do not register them with the system just to avoid tax, said Nasrul.
The junior minister requested the people to come forward and pay tax to ensure development of the country.
In the last two years, the government has spent at least Tk100 crore for development of Keraniganj but earned only Tk8 crore as income tax from the area, he said.
The junior minister expected that the tax collection from the area will increased by several times in coming future.
Later, Nasrul handed over Electronic Taxpayers Registration Number (eTIN) certificate to the new taxpayers in the programme.