The country’s income tax collection has surged nearly threefold over the past 12 years, defying a global unrest.
Amidst these positive trends, authorities are aiming to further bolster income tax collection by targeting one crore active Tax Identification Number (TIN) holders. However, the current number falls significantly short of this ambitious goal, standing between only 30 and 35 lakh.
Despite ongoing challenges, last year witnessed a notable increase in revenue earnings, continuing a trend observed since the country's independence.
Such information emerged during the discussion of speakers at a seminar titled, ‘New Income Tax Law and Tax Compliance: Changing Perspective’ organized on National Income Tax Day-2023 at the NBR’s Multipurpose Hall on Thursday.
According to a National Board of Revenue (NBR) the share of direct taxes in the total revenue has increased by almost four times in the last five decades and has increased to 35 percent in the fiscal year 2022-23.
The seminar also informed that the number of TIN adoptions has increased by more than 50 percent since FY 2022-23. Besides, the target of income tax collection for the current financial year is more
than Tk 1.53 crores.
NBR Chairman Abu HenaMdRahmatulMuneemsaid, “One crore income tax returns need to be filed at the moment to meet our future target, but there are only 30 lakh to 35 lakh TIN holders available in the country. We are working to increase the number of TIN holders.”
He said that the Income Tax Act needs to be changed in some areas in order to increase the taxpayer. ‘’We have tried to be accurate but there are some drawbacks. We are working to solve this,’’ said Muneem.
Mentioning that people consider paying taxes as a burden, he emphasizes on building a good relationship with the taxpayers.
Regarding the reluctance, fear and apprehension of the taxpayer, the NBR Chairman said, “People should be made aware of why they should pay taxes. If they pay taxes they will get a prosperous Bangladesh. This is what everyone has to understand and their fear should be removed.”
From the seminar, it was also learned that NBR is going to introduce new system TRP (Tax Return Preparer) through which return submission will be much easier.
Earlier, on Wednesday NBR decided to extend the deadline for filing annual income tax returns for individual taxpayers. Taxpayers can submit their return till 31st January.
Besides, the time for filing returns of corporate taxpayers has been extended. The last date for submission of returns by company taxpayers was January 15. It has been extended to February 28.
