Tax fair receives huge response on weekends

In the week-long fair, people are turning up at the fair venue and standing in long queues to receive services from taxmen, pay tax in bank booths and do other online and e-filing works. Braving the long queue and waiting for hours individuals are submitting their returns alongside paying taxes to the government exchequer. Of the crowd, some are seen fill out their respective tax papers siting on the floor of the underconstruction building, said a tax official who provides services at the help booths. Taxpayers are found willfully taking part in payment process while some want that the NBR arrange such fair in more spacious place to cope with the pressure of large crowd. Rehana Hasan, a taxpayer from Dhanmondi in the capital, said the fair brought tremendous positive responses, but the authority should open more booths to deal with the crowd. An NBR press release recently said it has already opened some new booths at the venue. According to the Joint Commissioner of revenue authority, Md Jehad Uddin Ahmed, people are enthusiastic and positive towards paying tax. “It is a tremendous positive development and we will think about the matter of opening more booths and holding tax fair in more spacious place in future.” In the last five days the National Board of Revenue has received Tk1417,12,43,551 in income tax from people across the country. Meanwhile, some 27,222 taxpayers got user identification number and password to file their online tax returns. A total of 6,38,016 people were provided with different services from the tax fairs being held across the country as of yesterday. Like every other day of the ongoing fair, some 45 students took part in the fair and participated in quiz competition under the banner of ‘tax education forum’. On the fifth day of the fair, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam was present at the fair in a session titled “Partnership Dialogue” as the chief guest while NBR chairman Md Nojibur Rahman as a special guest. The finance minister inaugurated the online tax return submission system on November 1, 2016. The fair will be held at 150 venues spanning seven days at divisional headquarters, four days at district headquarters, two days in 29 upazilas and one day at 57 upazilas as mobile income tax fair. The tax fair will remain open from 10:00am to 5:00pm till November 7.