Only one-fifth of the country’s 6m potential taxpayers contribute to the national exchequer while one-third of them hold valid tax identification numbers (TINs), according to an estimate by the top revenue official.
National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Ghulam Hossain yesterday said the potential income tax payers should not be less the number considering the economic size and activities.
He said only 1.2m individuals out of 2m valid TIN holders paid income tax in the current fiscal year.
The revenue boss revealed the estimate in presence of Finance Minister AMA Muhith at a discussion on the new budget for fiscal year 2013-14 in the capital yesterday.
The budget set a revenue collection target of Tk1.36tn for the NBR, which drew widespread criticism from the cross section of the society that considered the target ambitious.
The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) organised the roundtable with its president Kazi Akramuddin Ahmed in the chair.
The NBR chairman, however, discarded the criticism by saying the revenue target is not at all ambitious and said NBR would achieve the target by widening the tax net while giving attention to ensure transparency, providing quick services and mitigating hassles.
To explain the tax net widening strategy, he referred to a recent survey by the NBR on the house owners in the capital – about half of them do not have the tax files even.
“Around 26,000 out of 60,000 house owners do not have income tax files,” he said, pointing finger to the house owners who would be brought under the net besides ones outside the capital. “They’ll need to submit accounts on which their incomes help them build flat or houses in the city.”
Ghulam proposed to form a partnership with the country’s apex trade body to work on widening the income tax net.
He urged all irrespective of party and opinion to ensure an environment congenial for realising the revenue target for the next fiscal year and hoped that even Tk1.5tn in revenue would not be difficult to mobilise with the present congenial environment persisting in the country. He said the revenue earnings doubled in the last four years.
Finance Minister Muhith expected that no political unrest would be prevailing in the future and said strikes have been a major problem for the growth of economy. “We are expecting that no such problem will be seen in the future.”
