Electronic payment of any amount of income taxes into the exchequer is being made mandatory for all taxpayers, as it comes as a compliance issue for a much-needed ADB credit.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is going to complete the electronic tax-payment system by an order soon, official sources said.
Payment of taxes through pay orders or any other forms apart from electronic transfer would not be allowed once the tax authority introduced the system, said a senior income-tax official.
Currently, taxpayers are required to pay taxes of up to Tk 0.5 million through electronic transfers.
The tax official said the income-tax wing had sent a draft Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) to the law ministry for vetting in this regard.
"It is one of the conditions of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) against US$ 2.0-billion budget support this year," he said.
However, he added, introducing the electronic transfer of taxes is also part of NBR action plan to automate the tax-collection system.
Taxpayers will be able to use a-Chalan or automated chalan system of the government when they go to bank to deposit the amount of taxes.
They can use the automated chalan services through mobile apps, debit or credit cards, and through mobile financial services, the tax official said.
"Gradually, the NBR would move into the cashless system in a bid to mitigate hassle of taxpayers as well as minimise physical visit to the tax offices," he said.
The NBR and the Finance Division have jointly implemented the a-chalan system to plug tax evasion and ensure timely payment of taxes to the public exchequer.
The system has been implemented under the SPFMS programme on 'improvement of public financial services delivery through implementation of BACS IBAS++' scheme.
Through a-chalan, the taxpayers would be able to prepare their treasury challan online to pay income tax and deposit tax money at the bank counter with the printed copy of challan.
Bank will generate automated treasury challan with barcode as receipt copy after receiving tax.
Taxpayers will be able to check whether his/her tax was deposited with government exchequer through reading the barcode.
A-challan system will work as payment gateway if the taxpayer has online banking facility.
Earlier, the NBR chief had a plan to make the a-challan system mandatory for individual taxpayers from fiscal year 2021-2022.
Currently, income taxpayers can pay their tax online using NBR-Sonali Bank e-payment system.
Tax officials would benefit most from the system as field-level tax offices would be able to instantly know the tax amount deposited against the office.
Once a-challan made mandatory for all taxpayers, it will reduce the gap in the amount of tax collection between the NBR and the office of the Controller General of Accounts due to difference in the challan- management process.
Currently, taxpayers deposit their tax visiting a branch of bank and filling up the treasury challan manually. And taxpayers submit a part of the challan to the tax office.
Then bank forwards the treasury challan to Bangladesh Bank and the central bank forwards the copy of challan to the CGA office for accounting purposes.
Income-tax office also follows the same procedure if the taxpayer submits cheque or pay order to the tax office.
The process has often been found creating difference in the amount of tax collection between the tax and CGA offices.
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