DHAKA, Dec 20, 2023 (BSS) - Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR)
Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem today said that simple procedures are being
followed in tax collection to enrich the state coffer further.
 
"We're constantly making automation to simplify the tax payment process while
the Income Tax Act-2023 has also been enacted. The new law has been presented
in a simple manner to make the tax related services easy," he said.

The NBR Chairman said this while presiding over a function marking the
distribution of tax award and tax honour award to the best taxpayers for the
FY23 held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in the
capital today.

At the event, some 141 individuals and organizations were awarded National
Tax Cards or Tax Cards and honour awards for being the best taxpayers in the
Fiscal Year 2022-23. Among them 76 were individuals, 54 were companies and 11
in other categories.

Alongside the NBR Chairman, Finance Secretary Dr. Md. Khairuzzaman Mozumder
handed over the tax cards and tax honour award to the best tax payer
individuals and representatives of the companies and organizations.

Calling upon the taxpayers to come to the concerned tax offices if they have
any problem related to tax, Muneem, also the Senior Secretary of the Internal
Resources Division (IRD), said, "The new tax law has been presented simply.
However, if any tax related problem arises, please visit the tax office. Each
tax office remains open for taxpayers on a specific day. Please talk to the
tax officials and receive the desired services."

Mentioning that there are three sectors of revenue collection by the NBR
which are - income tax, customs and VAT, Muneem said revenue from income tax
is increasing day by day due to the increase in income at the individual
level. "Dependency on customs duty is declining leading to the changing
pattern in the structure of revenue," he added.

He said the government has already approved the proposal given by NBR to
expand the income tax department.

Finance Secretary Dr. Md. Khairuzzaman Mazumder said that the NBR has been
doing some good work to increase the internal revenue.

For example, he cited that the new VAT Act was introduced in 2019. In
addition to the implementation of the new Income Tax Act, he said the Customs
Act was also passed in the Jatiya Sangsad this year.

Dr Mozumder also expressed his high optimism that these three major steps
would play a special role in revenue collection.

He said that the e-challan system has ensured instant revenue collection
alongside eliminating the weakness of record keeping after revenue
collection.

Listing some of the steps taken by the government to expand revenue
mobilization, he said, "We want to achieve 10 million taxpayers by 2026 while
we've also a target to implement the medium and long-term revenue strategy by
June 2024. Besides, we've goal to raise the revenue income to 0.5 percent of
GDP in this year, to 0.5 percent in the next year and 0.7 percent of GDP in
the following year."

The Finance Secretary also said, "I'm fully optimistic that we'll be able to
achieve these goals in the way we're currently collecting revenue. I think
income tax will be an important tool for revenue generation the way we're
progressing ahead."

He said that the nation has already achieved two milestones of successes in
the economy -- one of them is graduating from the lower middle income country
status in 2015 and another is graduating to a developing country in 2026.

However, he said there is a big challenge -- firstly, the duty-free access
that the country is currently enjoying in different countries of the world
would not exist. At the same time, the subsidy facilities given to the
exporters should also be stopped.

For these two reasons, Dr Mozumder said the competitiveness of the export
sector would definitely decline which may affect exports.

He said that import duty should be reduced to increase the export
competitiveness which will create challenges in revenue generation. "There is
no alternative for increasing the internal revenue to overcome this
challenge," he added.
The Finance Secretary believed that it would be possible to achieve the
target of revenue income of Taka 4.30 lakh crore in the current fiscal year
(FY24).