The National Board of Revenue urged the employers not to recruit any unauthorised foreigners and threatened punitive actions if they do so.
It also sought their cooperation in collecting income tax from foreign workers in Bangladesh.
The call came at a meeting between NBR and five trade bodies at the NBR headquarters in Dhaka yesterday.
A long-term strategic plan was decided to be formulated to monitor tax collection from foreigners and taking punitive actions, the meeting sources said.
Under the plan, the NBR’s income tax wing would launch drive against recruitment of unauthorised foreigners while a taskforce would also be formed.
Officials said the taskforce would be aimed at collecting information, coordinating between agencies concerned and cooperation.
The agencies will share information between themselves so that a complete data bank can be made on working foreigners in the country.
The taskforce will include representatives from Board of Investment, Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority, NGO Affairs Bureau, National Security Intelligence, Special Branch of Police, Department of Immigration and Passports, Bangladesh Bank and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.
The employers, however, demanded a guideline on foreigners recruitment.
Leaders of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry attended the meeting with NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman in the chair.
NBR organised the meeting as part of awareness raising initiative among the employers on the matter.
As per the Finance Bill 2015, the companies, if found guilty of employing unauthorised foreigners, will pay 50% additional tax of total payable tax or Tk5 lakh as fine, whichever is higher.
The companies will also lose tax holiday or exemption benefits.
Currently, around 450,000 foreign nationals, mostly from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, South Korea and some European and African countries are working legally or illegally in Bangladesh.
Although all the foreigners are to pay 30% tax on their income, only some 10,000 do so.
Many of them are living and working here without any work authorisation, and leave Bangladesh secretly without paying due tax.
Officials alleged employers also helped the foreign workers dodge tax as they work on temporary basis renewing work permits every three months.
According to the Income Tax Ordinance 1984, a foreign national needs to open a tax file in Bangladesh if they stay for a period of 182 days or more in a year, or stay 90 days or more in a year after staying 365 days in previous four years.
They also need to present their tax clearance certificates from the NBR while crossing the immigration desk before leaving the country.
However, most of the foreigners now skip payment of their due tax because of lack of immigration check posts.
The meeting decided to take steps to make foreigners submit income tax certificate and clearance to the immigration desk during departure.
According to the BoI data, nearly 12,000 foreigners receives work permit from the authority every year.
“Once the process is complete, there will be no chance for foreigners to work in Bangladesh illegally,” NBR chairman said.
