Businessmen top the list of undisclosed money holders

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Doulot Akter Mala
Businessmen topped the list of undisclosed money holders who had legalised their income in the last two years availing the opportunity given by the government with payment of a specific amount of penal taxes, a study said.
Around 80 per cent of the taxes came from businessmen out of six categories of professions that had whitened their income in 2007 and 2008.
Businessmen occupied the top position followed by physicians, private sector officials, government officials, lawyers and military officials.
People having undisclosed income have whitened their income by paying penal taxes at 5.0 per cent and 7.0 per cent respectively in 2007 and 2008 respectively in addition to normal tax rates.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has prepared a study paper for the cabinet with a detailed analysis on response of undisclosed money holders in the previous offers.
A total of 56,845 people declared their undisclosed income worth Tk 96.82 billion in the last two years contributing Tk 9.11 billion taxes to the public exchequer, the study paper said.
The NBR has found that six categories of people showed highest response to its offer. Of them, businessmen topped the list while physicians were in the second position.
Around 41801 businessmen legalised their income in 2007 and 2008 paying Tk 6.84 billion taxes, nearly 80 per cent of the taxes collect ed under this offer.
Nearly 4000 physicians availed the last two opportunities declaring their income worth Tk 6.85 billion. They paid Tk 630 million taxes against the declared amount.
The NBR received Tk 530 million taxes from 4149 private service holders in the last two years. They declared undisclosed income worth more than Tk 4.0 billion grabbing the third position.
A total of 3489 government officials formalised their income worth Tk 2.90 billion with payment of Tk 470 million taxes.
Lawyers have paid Tk 100 million taxes against undisclosed income worth Tk 660 million. A total of 626 lawyers availed the opportunity in the last two years.
Nearly 140 military officers declared undisclosed income worth Tk 170 million in 2007 and 2008. They paid taxes worth Tk 30 million to the public exchequer.
However, the NBR has received taxes worth Tk 460 million from taxpayers in other professions.
"We received highest response in 2007 when the government offered the opportunity simultaneously with the massive crackdown on corruption," said a top tax official.
A total of 42591 persons availed the opportunity in 2007 and nearly 14254 persons in 2008.
He expressed his doubt over getting noticeable response on the present one-year offer on whitening black money.
The government has offered the opportunity for money whitening with payment of 10 per cent tax for current fiscal, specially focusing on luring investment.