Speakers at a pre-budget meeting recommended a comprehensive, integrated and end to end digitization process in NBR for overall tax management so that the hassles faced by the tax payers are minimized.
The Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB) organized the Pre-Budget Discussion on National Budget 2023-24 on Tuesday) at its Ruhul Quddus Auditorium, Nilkhet, Dhaka. Sheikh Mohammad Salim Ullah, Secretary, Financial Institutions Division, Ministry of Finance, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh graced the program as the Chief Guest. Ranjan Kumar Bhowmik FCMA, Former Member (Tax), National Board of Revenue presented a paper on “Income Tax Proposal” while Md. Kausar Alam FCMA, Secretary, ICMAB presented a paper on “Customs and VAT Proposal” in the programme.
Dr. Sayema Haque Bidisha, Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Dhaka, TIM Nurul Kabir, Executive Director, Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Shamsul Huq Zahid, Editor, The Financial Express (FE) attended the program as Discussants. Chief Guest Sheikh Mohammad Salim Ullah, Secretary, Financial Institutions Division, Ministry of Finance in his speech mentioned that budget expenditure size is determined first in government budget preparation process, then financing is addressed taking multi-faceted macro-economic, fiscal and monetary conditions into consideration. He emphasized that the policy makers have to consider cross-cutting issues such as macro-economic factors, fiscal policy and monetary policy in determining the budget size.
Md. Abdur Rahman Khan FCMA, President, ICMAB delivered his speech at the event. Mr. Khan said the Vision of ICMAB is fully aligned with the vision of the father of the Nation and her competent daughter HPM Sheikh Hasina to help Bangladesh become an industrialized, developed and smart nation.
Many of its proposals were for increasing the tax revenue. ICMAB also suggested that audit of tax returns should be selected on the basis of automated system based on revenue risk analysis for ensuring transparency and eliminating unnecessary harassment of the compliant taxpayers.
Ranjan Kumar Bhowmik FCMA, and Md. Kausar Alam FCMA, presented well-articulated papers and suggested amendments of Income Tax Law and VAT Law for improving tax compliance, expansion of tax net and for attracting local and foreign investments for the overall growth of our economy. Many of the proposals were related to increase of tax revenue.
Dr. Sayema Haque Bidisha, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, T. I. M. Nurul Kabir, Executive Director, Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Shamsul Huq Zahid, Editor, The Financial Express (FE) gave emphasis on digitalization and proper monitoring and evaluation to increase the tax net.
