Eligible business house executives to be brought under tax net

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FE ReportbrThe National Board of Revenue (NBR) will launch drives to bring the eligible officials and executives of business houses and industrial units, especially the textile and garment sectors, under its tax net to boost the government revenue income.brThe NBR Chairman Muhammad Abdul Mazid made this observation Monday after holding a meeting with representatives of various trade bodies and business associations at the Board to motivate businessmen to pay taxes. brLeaders of different sectors including manufactures of knitwear, garments and textile, jewellery sector, Bangladesh 'Dokan Makil Samity' and publication sector, and senior officials of the NBR were also present at the meeting.brWe will sit separately with trade bodies and business associations to seek their support and cooperation for realisation of tax from officials and executives, especially those who are eligible but still remain outside the tax net, the Mr. Abdul Mazid told the newsmen after the meeting.brThe NBR chief's observation came after the President of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) told the meeting that a significant number of executives and officials still remained outside the tax net, despite the fact that they are eligible to pay tax.brThe NBR chairman further said the Board will prepare sector-wise lists of companies and business houses to identify their eligible taxpayers, including the highly-salaried expatriates.brWe will prepare lists of members of companies and industries in various sectors to bring the entitled persons under the income-tax net, he said.brThe main purpose of such initiative is to make sure as to whether the people concerned are duly paying their tax or not, the NBR chief noted.brHe also mentioned that after identifying the eligible taxpayers the NBR authorities would seek necessary support and cooperation from the relevant trade bodies and associations for ensuring deduction of tax from their respective employees' source of incomes. brThe NBR chief also urged the business people to duly pay their taxes for the sake of helping boost the government's internal resources.brThe proper utilisation of the tax money can only be ensured through payment of tax by majority of people in the society,' he said while responding to a remark made by a participants regarding the use of the internal resource.brAccording to officials, the NBR held the meeting as part of its current drive to motivate and create awareness among the business people about the payment of tax, aiming to help boost the government's overall tax revenue.brThe key objective of the current initiative is to bring more people under the NBR's tax-collection network, brTerming the current tax-GDP ration still poor in Bangladesh, the officials said only 600,000 out of the total holders of taxpayers' identification number (TIN) submit their annual income-tax returns while the number of taxpayers is, however, less than that.br