The move by the National Board of Revenue (NRB) to bring the rural economy into the tax net is, indeed, a logical extension of Bangladesh’s long-standing struggle to widen its tax base.
With a tax-to-GDP ratio that remains stubbornly low, expanding coverage beyond urban, formal sectors is necessary. That cannot be denied.
The real challenge however, as the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has rightly cautioned, is not policy design -- it is execution.
CPD’s analysis repeatedly highlights a persistent implementation deficit in Bangladesh’s fiscal system. Revenue targets are often ambitious, yet collection falls short by wide margins, exposing gaps in administrative capacity, enforcement, and coordination.
Extending taxation into rural areas is not a simple matter of inclusion; it requires robust systems -- accurate taxpayer identification, digital tracking, and grievance mechanisms -- to function without distortion.
Without these, the policy risks becoming yet another well-intentioned measure undermined by weak delivery.
More importantly, revenue mobilization must be pursued without increasing the burden on ordinary citizens.
In practice, Bangladesh’s tax enforcement has often gravitated toward those easiest to reach: Small businesses, informal traders, and low-income service providers.
Expanding tax coverage without reforming enforcement culture could simply widen that imbalance.
This is where the conversation must shift.
Bangladesh does not suffer from a shortage of taxable activity; it suffers from an inability -- or unwillingness -- to effectively tax the affluent and those benefiting from systemic loopholes.
Massive sums are estimated to be lost annually to tax evasion alone. Bringing the rural economy into the net will do little to address this structural leakage unless enforcement priorities are recalibrated.
If this reform is to succeed, it must be accompanied by administrative overhaul: Digitization, transparency, and a clear move toward taxing those who have evaded paying their share as a result of influence or power.
Unless these measures are enforced, the system risks falling back to a familiar pattern -- where the least powerful suffer, while the privileged continue to slip through the cracks.
