The National Board of Revenue has asked its field offices to prepare a list of non-compliant taxpayers so that the board can bring them under surveillance of tax collection.
The list will include the names of the taxpayers with present or previous history of tax irregularities, and of those who are allegedly hampering the collection efforts, said officials.
NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman recently sent letters to the commissioners at income tax offices, customs houses, and customs, excise and VAT commissionerates asking to prepare the list and a profile of non-complaint taxpayers.
The revenue authorities took the decision to keep the tax dodgers, both individuals and companies, under close watch so the tax evasions could be reduced significantly.
While doing the process, the tax officials may review the tax files and past records of taxpayers.
NBR chairman, earlier, told the media that the intelligence wing of NBR will chase “dishonest traders” while “honest traders” will be able to continue businesses without any worry.
Currently, less than 1% of the population of around 160m people in the country pay taxes regularly. The rate is 3% for Indians, less than 1% for Pakistan and only 0.3% for Vietnam, according to a survey report.
The Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2014 was prepared by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) of the United Nations.
Although at least 7 million people earn enough to pay tax, only 1.75m have taxpayers identification numbers (TIN) in the country.
Among them, nearly 1.2 million files their tax returns regularly. The government plans to increase the number of taxpayers to three millon by FY2018-19.
According to the Escap report, wealthier individuals have continued to avoid paying tax because of non-compliance and poor implementation of laws.
Currently, the tax GDP ratio in the country is 10%. The Escap survey suggests that Bangladesh has the potential to raise it to the 18%.
NBR officials said many taxpayers hide their actual income to evade tax while many plays a dilly-dally role while paying tax mainly due to lack of manpower and monitoring.
The government loses around Tk40,000 crore of revenue annually mainly out of tax evasions plus tax exemptions.
With the letter, NBR chief asked the officials to ensure taxpayers-friendly atmosphere everywhere in the country.
“No tax evader, or dishonest person will be able to create obstacles in the process of ensuring revenue-friendly atmosphere, no matter how strong and powerful they are,” read Nojibur’s letter.
He urged the officials to go forward to meet the revenue target by overcoming such seen or unseen obstacles.
The NBR is assigned to mobilise a gigantic target of Tk176,370 crore revenue this fiscal year.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
