Government's ongoing efforts to raise the number of taxpayers failed to deliver much as the total income-tax returns submitted this year by individuals remained almost static over last year's.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) received some 1,092,032 tax returns by the November 30 deadline, up by 64,409 from 1,027,623 of the corresponding period of last tax year.
However, the government's revenue authority received Tk 1.47 billion higher in taxes with the tax returns this year compared to that of the corresponding period.
In the current 2015-16 tax year, the NBR received Tk 15.37 billion in taxes from the individual taxpayers against Tk 13.90 billion of 2014-15.
Apart from time petitions, the number of actual income-tax returns stood at 815,894 till November 30. The tax authority this year received a large number of time petitions seeking more time by the taxpayers.
According to the official figure, the NBR received some 276,138 time petitions from the individual taxpayers in 2015-16 tax year. Last year, the number was 193,721.
The number of actual income-tax returns dropped by 18,008 this year by the deadline, November 30, compared to that of the tax year 14-15.
However, tax officials said some 1,092,032 taxpayers, including the time petitions, responded to the taxmen, which is higher by 64,409 compared to the matching period last year.
Official data showed a total of 1.1 million individual taxpayers had submitted their tax returns in 2014-15 until June 30.
They said by the end of the current tax year the number of individual taxpayers may cross last year's level.
Policy Research Institute (PRI) Executive Director Dr Ahsan H Mansur said high rate of tax forced some taxpayers to recalculate their tax amounts and find ways to dodge payment.
"It is not a good strategy to raise the tax rate for raising tax collection," he said.
Many taxpayers sought time as they need to arrange a large amount of tax due to increase of tax rate, he noted.
Talking to the FE, income-tax member of the NBR Abdur Razzaque, however, said the taxmen are quite happy to get response from the higher number of taxpayers this year.
"Overall motivational campaign, two tax-fairs made people aware about payment of tax and submission of tax returns," he said.
He said time petition is considered confirmed taxpayers who will submit tax returns within the given timeframe.
The government has set a target to raise the number of taxpayers to 3.0 million by 2018-19. The NBR targeted some 320,000 taxpayers in FY 2015-16. To raise the number, the revenue board is carrying out door-to-door survey and different motivational campaigns across the country.
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