The fact that a senior income tax official was caught red-handed in a bribery case is everything that is wrong with our tax culture.
It's no surprise that the general public views the very notion of paying taxes with skepticism when such blatant examples of corruption are strewn across our entire tax system -- from the bottom rungs to the absolute top of the ladder, our tax culture is utterly compromised.
Which is nothing short of a shame as taxes are an incredibly important component of maintaining the integrity of our public services and indeed the economy as well. But the incredibly vague and opaque systems within which our tax culture operates leaves very little room for transparency. Indeed, citizens have the right to know where their tax money is going, and public funds should never be misappropriated, so the task ahead is a tall order.
There is no doubt that our tax culture needs to change, and our tax system is in dire need of reform.
The first obvious step would be to root out the problem elements which have contributed to the erosion of trust from the tax system. While the detention of the offending tax commissioner is a good step to ensure the public that the authorities recognize the problem, the problem goes beyond one individual.
Tax bureaucrats who regularly accept and even demand bribes should be brought to book with the judiciousness such crimes deserve. Inaction will only continue to embolden these bad actors to further alienate Bangladeshis from paying their taxes.
If we wish to achieve sustainable progress through a wide tax net, we cannot accept corruption in our tax system as a norm any longer. Changes have to be made, and the first step would be to hold perpetrators accountable.
