The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is planning tougher actions against tax evaders to control malpractices in submitting tax returns by individuals, institutions, companies and business establishments, reports BSS. The action would include higher penalty and stricter enforcement of criminal action, quoted an NBR official.
The plan would be finalised soon to send a strong message to the errant tax payers, he added. The move would be a step forward in encouraging taxpayers to pay their dues and maintaining updated tax files, he expressed.
The official also said that these types of laws are enforced successfully in many countries around the world.
Officials and employees at the different circles and divisions of the NBR at a meeting last week strongly recommended increasing of penalty and stricter enforcement of criminal action against the tax dodgers, the official informed. The meeting discussed a work plan of the revenue authorities aimed at achieving the annual revenue target of Taka 1 lakh 49 thousand and 720 crore by the end of the current 2014-15 financial year. Besides increasing the penalty and enforcement of criminal action, the work plan also includes identifying the risky and sensitive organisations in terms of revenue collection, intensifying drives to realise the dues and expediting revenue collection and speeding up disposal of pending cases. "The tax authorities have accelerated its activities to attain the fiscal target of revenue collection from the beginning of the current financial year against the backdrop of the last year's experience of revenue shortfall," NBR senior member Syed Aminul Karim told BSS. He said necessary instructions had already been passed to the field level staff of NBR, suggesting them to build strong relations with the tax-payers and offer people comfortable services. He said the NBR had also planned to strengthen record management, ensuring good governance in tax administration and providing tax officials with more training to make its tax collection mechanism more efficient. Karim said the tax officials at different circles and divisions had already been given a monthly and annual collection target on the basis of the trend of the tax payments and nature of taxpayers of respective circles and divisions. Among the total revenue target, the NBR is expected to collect the highest amount of Taka 57,500 crore from income tax followed by Taka 55,580 crore from VAT (value added service).
