The government raised the ceiling of income tax payment by treasury chalan five times for the convenience of taxpayers and easing collection complexities.
Now taxpayers are allowed to pay up to Tk 50,000 in income tax by treasury chalan, following a steep rise from a maximum amount of Tk 10,000.
Officials said the income-tax wing of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) amended the relevant provision of the Income Tax Ordinance 1984 by a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO), dated December 04, 2017.
However, the NBR has invited complaints or suggestions on the amendment to the law in 15 days. In case of no suggestions or complaints, the amendments will be considered final after expiry of the timeframe.
Taxmen usually prefer tax payment by treasury chalan for quick disposal, said NBR member (tax administration and human resource development) Md Abdur Razzaque, who signed the regulatory order.
"Due to different incidents of treasury-chalan forgeries, the NBR had kept the ceiling low," he said.
Tax officials have to convert pay orders and cheques to treasury chalan to deposit the money with the public exchequer -- a process which is quite time-consuming, he added.
The tax-payment ceiling in case of treasury chalan was Tk 5,000 earlier, which now gradually rose to Tk 50,000 to facilitate taxpayers, Mr Razzaque said.
"Once the e-payment process gets momentum, the taxpayers can pay the tax online," he said.
Earlier, the Cash and Debt Management Committee (CDMC) of the finance ministry had recommended that the NBR should make mandatory the use of treasury chalan instead of existing pay order and account-payee cheque for payment of income tax.
The recommendation was aimed at ensuring deposit of tax on time by the taxmen and removing any mismatch of data in revenue collection.
Currently, taxpayers can pay taxes by pay order and account-payee cheque issued by commercial banks and by treasury chalan.
In 2003, the government incorporated a provision allowing tax payment by pay order and account-payee cheque following some incidents of treasury-chalan forgery.
Taxmen had detected many treasury chalans with forged bank seals and official signatures.
The official said taxmen do not have any mechanism to detect the authenticity of taxpayers' treasury chalan instantly.
He said it is also risky and troublesome for the taxpayers to pay large amounts of tax by treasury chalan as they need to carry the cash amount to the bank.
Earlier, the CDMC had asked the tax authorities to scrutinise the possibility of reintroduction of a provision making tax payment through treasury chalan mandatory by scrapping the two other systems.
It also asked the NBR to place a report with the committee for discussing the matter of changes.
However, the NBR, in its report, preferred to keep all possible ways of tax payment open for the taxpayers.
Another tax official said difference of tax-collection figures occurs between the NBR and the office of Chief Auditor General (CAG) as tax paid by pay order and cheque requires some time to covert to treasury chalan.
The government does not get revenue right after taxpayers pay the taxes due to procedural delays, he said. Even sometimes it took a month to deposit the paid tax by some of the tax offices.
To address the problem, he added, the NBR earlier had instructed the field-level tax officials to deposit taxes into government exchequer within 24 hours of payment by the taxpayers.
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