National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Md  Abdur Rahman Khan. -File Photo

DHAKA, March 22, 2025 (BSS) - National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Md 
Abdur Rahman Khan today said that there would be absolutely business-friendly 
and public welfare oriented revenue and tax measures in the next national 
budget for FY26 much to the comfort of the general taxpayers and business 
community.

"Absolutely business-friendly and public welfare oriented issues will be the 
key in revenue measures and tax collection in the next budget," he said.

The NBR Chairman was addressing a RAPID-ERF Seminar on "Domestic Resource 
Mobilization" as the chief guest held at the ERF Auditorium in the capital.

Presided over ERF President Doulot Akter Mala, Dhaka University Professor and 
RAPID Executive Director Dr M Abu Eusuf made the key-note presentation while 
Head of Online at the Daily Prothom Alo Shawkat Hossain Masum spoke as a 
discussant. ERF General Secretary Abul Kashem moderated the programme.

The NBR Chairman said that the overall operations of the NBR in the last few 
months mainly focused on serving the public interest rather than merely 
collecting revenues.

In this regard, he mentioned that import duties were reduced on a number of 
essential items like sugar, dates, lentil, rice, onion and eggs so that the 
price of such items remain within the purchasing capacity of the commoners.

Due to such reduction in duties, Rahman said that the revenue board has 
incurred a loss of thousands of crores of Taka as revenues.

Replying to a question, he said that the tax exemptions would not be provided 
afresh while the existing tax exemptions would be reduced gradually.

Answering to a question on the single rate of VAT and on the predictable tax 
policy, the revenue board chief opined that the VAT should be determined at a 
single rate, but it would depend on the consensus of the business community 
although they are yet to reach an agreement in this regard.

"Unless we're bound, we don't want to go beyond the single rate of VAT 
...it's our ultimate target to make it at a single rate," he added.

Rahman said that the SROs would not be issued every now and then while there 
would be 'sunset clause' so that the revenue policy become predictable as 
much as possible. "It will go towards betterment in the future and not move 
backwards,"

Seeking wholehearted cooperation from the business community as well as from 
the journalists, the revenue board chief said that they want to establish 
such an NBR which would be able to mobilize enough revenues without taking 
loans to meet the expenditures. "We don't want to put the burden of loans on 
our next generation as it's a big scale unethical act,"

He said that it is the plan of the government that the entire operations of 
the NBR would come under a total digital environment. 

"We want to widen further the tax net and make risk-based audit selection to 
catch the tax evaders. We want to facilitate the compliant taxpayers so that 
they can do business comfortably and you'll see such reflection in the next 
budget," he added.

Rahman opined that unless the tax regime of the country is made more 
competitive than the tax regimes of the other countries, Bangladesh would not 
be able to attract more FDI.

He said that in the future, they have a plan not to accept the submission of 
offline income tax returns except in some unavoidable cases.

In this regard, the NBR Chairman said if the operations of the revenue board 
come under full automation, then fear and doubt of the taxpayers would be 
reduced while command-based or computer-based audit selection would be 
ensured to reduce the hassles.

He also acknowledged the shortcomings of the NBR in chasing properly those 
who are not paying taxes according or the tax evaders.

Citing that the existing tax to GDP ratio alongside the tax net is very small 
especially the VAT net, Rahman said that the VAT net is not compatible in 
line with the requirements. "The revenue board is trying to rejuvenate the 
overall VAT collection operations,"

When asked whether the scope for legalising undisclosed income without facing 
any questions will remain in case of the purchase of flats and land, Rahman 
said even it remains, then the taxpayers would have to pay higher tax.

He also informed that they would hold discussions over the matter since the 
Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) has some 
reservations over the issue.