The government has provided widers opportunity to whiten or legalise untaxed or illegal money.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday announced that the money legalising opportunity showing undeclared cash, bank deposits, savings certificates, shares, bonds or any other securities without facing any question.
The opportunity could be availed by paying taxes at a rate of 10 percent on the value of said declaration from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, he proposed, he said while placing the proposed national Budget for 2020-21 fiscal year in the parliament.
As per the announcement, individual taxpayers will be able to invest money in the capital market and show it in their tax returns paying the said amount of tax on the value of the investment.
However, they will have to comply with some conditions including a lock-in period of three years.
No other authority including the income tax authority will raise any question in this regard, he proposed.
Individual taxpayers will also be allowed to disclose any type of undisclosed property including land, building, flat, and apartment by paying tax at a particular rate on per square meter of the said assets, the proposal said.
“Extraordinary time demands extraordinary measures,” the finance minister said.
Due to lack of adequate knowledge on tax return submission may result in causing mismatch regarding proper declaration of assets owned by a taxpayer in his/her tax return, he said.
He proposed to insert two separate sections in the income tax ordinance-1984 in this regard.
According to sources, the government considers that if the black money is invested into the business, the economy of the country might be stronger.
It should be mentioned that black money is largely attributed to tax evasion and its direct impact is the loss of government revenue. For the last five years, black money-holders have been allowed to whiten their assets by investing in residential buildings by paying a tax of 10 per cent on the amount invested, which for regular taxpayers is between 10 and 30 per cent.
It also should be mentioned that the scopes of whitening the black money has been created since 1975. But, most of the black money holder were not willing to whiten their black money due to various conditions.
According to the NBR, for the first time Tk 2.75 crore, which was black money, was whiten during the army back government in 1975 immediate after the assassination of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.\
Later, Tk 50.76 crore was whiten during the period from 1976 to 1981, Tk 45.89 crore was whitened during the period of time from 1982 t 1990, Tk 150.79 crore was whitened during the time from 1991 to 1996, Tk 950 crore was whitened from 1997 to 2000, Tk 827 crore was whitened from 2001 to 2006, Tk 9,682 crore was whitened from 2007 to 2008, Tk 1,805 crore was whitened from 2009 to 2013 and Tk 856.30 crore was whitened from 2014 to 20017
