The National Board of Revenue’s decision to issue door-to-door notices to non-filing TIN holders may appear to widen the tax net, but is a strategy that risks becoming administrative pressure rather than meaningful reform.
The truth of the matter is that Bangladesh cannot build a stronger revenue system merely by sending notices to every name on a database.
In fact, the numbers point to a more basic problem: Of nearly 13 million TIN holders, only around five million filed returns in the previous fiscal year. Yet the NBR does not know how many remaining accounts belong to deceased people, individuals with no taxable income, or genuine defaulters.
Nearly 40% of notices are reportedly returned because addresses are outdated, while only 10% of recipients respond. Pursuing such records without first fixing the database is unlikely to generate substantial revenue.
The priority should be to modernize tax administration. The NBR needs an integrated, regularly updated database linked with civil registration and government records. It must make TIN cancellation and return submission simpler, improve digital services, and ensure taxpayers understand their obligations without unnecessary visits to tax offices.
Enforcement should focus on deliberate evasion, undisclosed wealth, and large-scale defaulters, rather than pressuring people who do not meet the income tax threshold.
More importantly, Bangladesh needs revenue targets that reflect economic realities and the capacity of its tax machinery. The NBR has repeatedly fallen short of ambitious targets, including a Tk41,879 crore deficit in the first quarter of FY27. Setting increasingly high figures without addressing structural weaknesses only creates pressure for hurried, ineffective collection drives.
Targets must be grounded in collection trends, economic growth and administrative capacity.
Revenue generation is essential to funding public services and development, but it requires public trust, fair enforcement, and a system that makes compliance easier.
The government must therefore pursue those reforms instead of relying on the current door-to-door notice system to compensate for unrealistic expectations.
