The National Board of Revenue’s recent plans to form four specialized units in order to prevent tax evasion is indeed laudatory, especially given the dire state of our tax net. But it is with that exact issue in mind that we hope the NBR’s newest units carry out their operations.
One of the fundamental issues with our tax culture is that it is quite content in pushing policies which only end up hurting existing tax-payers instead of formulating new ways to incentivize more people to pay their taxes which leads to stagnation. A good example would be the government’s over-reliance on indirect taxes, such as value added tax, to pick up the slack.
The problem with indirect taxes is that it ultimately ends up hurting the poor the hardest, which is absolutely not the way given the state of income inequality in Bangladesh. After all, the very idea behind taxes is that everyone pays in accordance with their means so that the nation can achieve its economic ambitions, but if our tax policies keep placing the brunt of that responsibility on those who can barely get by, our nation will never reach its medium-to-long term economic ambitions.
To that end, it is imperative that the NBR’s new units focus more on following up on tax evaders with powerful connections with vested quarters instead of harassing small-time business owners who can barely get by.
At the end of the day, our tax problems all have one thing in common: A lack of faith in the system itself. If the government wants more people to pay their taxes, not only must it ensure that the process itself is as hassle-free as possible it also needs to improve the state of financial transparency, that is how the government is spending our hard-earned tax money.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
