The second deadline to submit income tax returns expired yesterday, with revenue officials saying the response was less than expected.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith also submitted his return at the eleventh hour, yesterday.
National Board of Revenue said as of November 20 it received a total of 650,000 returns and submissions made in last 10 days were still to be counted.
In first 20 days after the deadline was reset, only around 100,000 TIN holders submitted returns.
However, the total number so far (as of November 20) was much lower than the expected number of around 1.5m as last year the total submissions were over 1.3m, said a high NBR official.
Around 1.7m taxpayers across the country hold TIN (taxpayer’s identification number), according to the board which now plans to follow legal procedures against evasive taxpayers for their failure to submit returns.
“We are planning legal actions against them,” said an income tax official.
NBR had extended the time twice after regular deadline ended on September 30 as such demand was placed from taxpayers including the country’s apex trade body FBCCI.
According to the income tax ordinance, the revenue authority can fine Tk1,000 at a time and Tk50 for each day if any TIN holder failed to submit the returns within the deadline.
