Apparently ill-automated tax-payment system is found fraught with risk of revenue fraudulence as land-revenue offices and some bank branches deplore missing features of the mechanism, sources say.
The revenue board has made mandatory provision for government tax payment through automated chalan or a-chalan, which is said have the pushed these taxpayers in a quandary.
Though the government's revenue authority had issued order making all tax payments through a-chalan, integration of the system has yet to be in place with the sub-registry offices.
Both different branch offices of commercial banks and land sub-registry offices have found some features missing in the a-chalan that may cause unusual hassle to the service-seekers as well as pose risk of fraudulence.
Talking to the FE writer, sub-registrars of different land-revenue offices have said they have no alternative but to accept pay-orders though the National Board of Revenue (NBR) order says 'no pay-orders would be accepted for payment of any of the taxes other than a-chalan or electronic payment'.
On October 1, 2023, the government replaced the GTS software with the a-chalan by making it mandatory for payment of VAT and income taxes to the public exchequer.
"Following the complexities, people are getting discouraged from completing their land-registration procedures by paying taxes," said a sub-registrar in Dhaka zone.
He said the NBR issued verbal instructions to the sub-registry offices of land that manual chalan would also be accepted for land-tax payment which the sub-registrars are following now.
He, however, expressed his concern over possible legal complexities as there is no written or official instruction from the tax authority yet.
A top official of the income-tax wing of the NBR said they would issue an order soon allowing both manual and automated chalan for land-tax payment that encompasses even the backwoods across the country.
The sub-registrar has also pointed out other problems with automated chalan, addressing the authorities concerned to resolve those immediately to make the digitized system flawless.
"The a-chalan system has no refund option for paid taxes in case of cancelation of land-purchase deals between buyers and sellers. Some of the people have been facing problems for this missing option," he says.
Also, some of the codes of tax deposits in a-chalan have yet to be issued by the government, leaving sub-registrars confused, he adds.
Also, he points out, one a-chalan could be used multiple times as people are allowed to take several printouts of the document without having validity period.
"It may evoke fraudulent practices by a vested quarter, prompting them to use it for multiple purposes. It would pose risk on collection of revenue for the public exchequer," he goes mentioning the flaws and requests the authorities concerned to pay attention to resolving the problems.
Many of the taxpayers willing to register land, pay taxes or other government payments through a-chalan have raised the issue while talking to the FE.
Also, some bankers have pointed out several limitations of a-chalan due to its missing options that results in complexities in field-level implementation.
In a letter earlier, Sonali Bank had requested the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to remove several flaws from the system experienced by different bank officials.
General Manager of Sonali Bank Md Nurun Nabi listed few complexities facing bank branches in operating a-chalan. He sent the letter to the BACS and iBAS++ Scheme of the Ministry of Finance.
The letter has also been forwarded to Bangladesh Bank, the National Board of Revenue, the office of Comptroller and Auditor General.
The letter reads: corporate delivery of services is being hampered as each of the chalan preparation takes three to four minutes to enter the client's data.
For small-volume deposits, branches have to remain busy preparing each of a-chalans separately.
Corporates paying taxes of its employees through the system have also been facing problems as there is no scope to add names of more than one employee in one chalan.
On land registration, banks have to prepare three to five a-chalans for one land or flat registration.
The a-chalan has no option to enter data of more than one donator of land at the time of its registration.
In the system, clients are entering data of VAT chalan using Business Identification Number (BIN) of their own companies and bring Over the Counter (OTC) tracking number, but the a-chalans do not have option to input the data of the persons who have deposited the tax. Brach officials have to give entry of all data again, causing repetition of their work.
It has been learnt revenue collection from land registration has declined drastically, by nearly 40 per cent, in many of the land-revenue offices thanks to such riddles, including tax hike that the NBR lowered on Monday.
Individual taxpayers who used to pay taxes through pay-orders or treasury chalan would not be able to do so in the current financial year, they said.
Some of the taxpayers said they had to replace their pay-order with a-chalan for lack of awareness.
Though a-chalan system has started contributing to replacing the manual chalan, pay-order system, gradually by ensuring government receipt in time, some of its missing features have been slowing the process.
"Some 35 per cent of government revenues, both tax and non-tax, were deposited through a-chalan last year to the public exchequer," said a senior Ministry of Finance (MoF) official involved with iBAS++.
The ibas++ wing has a targeted collecting at least 50 per cent of the revenues through a-chalan this fiscal year, he said.
"Already more that 100 of services came under a-Chalan system while the rest 115 are in pipeline," the official said.
Some vital revenue-generating services, including sub-registry offices of Land under Local Government, have yet to come under a-chalan system fully, he added.
Once all of the services come under the automated chalan, the government would be able to ensure its entire revenues, fees and charges through online payment, he added.
"It is a smooth and fast system which the taxpayers can fill in at home too to save time."
They can also pay taxes through electronic bank transfer or Mobile Financial Services (MFS), he said.
"We have imparted training to the bank officials so that they can handle a-chalan easily," he added.
The MoF has asked them to open a separate booth to issue clients a-chalan for expediting the services, he mentioned about the troubleshooting steps.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
