Sunday, October 4, 2015

Of tax and taxpayers


The NBR has designed a drive to bring in 320,000 tax payers under the net by the conclusion of this fiscal year. A special survey will be launched this month which constitutes the heart of the drive. The "NBR Survey-2015", will attempt to discover 20,000 more taxpayers from each of the 29 tax zonal offices. This survey will be conducted by the field offices in teams, three times a week. Respective zones will receive a list of new taxpayers each month from those teams. NBR team has also put on their agenda to
personally visit houses, shops and some commercial establishments in the posh areas of the capital, to aid this drive. Supporting information from service agencies on taxable items is also planned to be obtained by the NBR.

Out of the current 1.7 million TIN holders, 1.2 million of them are taxpayers. Previously in 2012, the number of tax avoidance was found to be 163,000. Successful initiatives are needed to meet the target of around Tk 1.76 lakh crore of taxes, almost half of which is from income taxes. The conclusion of the recent NBR Income Tax fair was a promising step in that direction, which collected Tk 2,035 crore from 1.61 lakh tax payers. This was a 21.5% increase from last year. On the last day of the 7-day fair, Tk 394 crore alone was raised from 38,205 tax payers out of the record setting 7.57 lakh attending throughout.

In the longer term within the next 4 years, the government's aim to reach 3 million taxpayers is vision which seems far from now. Still however, initiatives must be regular and increasing, such as a another possible tax fair in winter, to meet the ambitious target and widen the taxpayer net.

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