Income-tax collection suffered an aggregate shortfall by Tk 8.13 billion until February in the current fiscal year (FY), sending the collectors into a desperate drive to make it up allegedly by fair means or foul.
Tax officials attributed the lower-than-targeted income-tax receipts largely to sluggish economic activities because of the ongoing political turmoil.
The income-tax wing of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has collected Tk 254.65 billion in the first eight months of the fiscal year against its target for Tk 262.78 billion.
And the collected revenue accounts for 44.17 per cent of the aggregate income-tax target set at Tk 575 billion for the FY 2014-15.
The revenue board revealed the data in a review paper sent to the Internal Resources Division (IRD) on progress in implementation of the Prime Minister's instruction.
The PM on February 05, 2015 directed the NBR to ensure its revenue growth and take necessary steps to get to the goal.
In the review paper, the NBR mentioned that it has spread the responsibility on supervision of different tax zones to all the board members involved with income tax.
"All of the income-tax members are conducting intensive field visits and preparing comprehensive reports. They have set a timeframe for the tax offices to prepare strategies and implement those so that they can achieve their respective revenue-collection target," the review paper says.
Proper compliance with instructions for a comprehensive report is also under scrutiny, it added.
Income-tax collection largely depends on the collection of advance income tax (AIT) from imports, corporate taxpayers, including cell-phone operators, banks, insurances, cigarette companies and the like.
Tax officials said the department has intensified drive to tap the potential sectors to make up for the revenue losses caused by the political impasse over poll issues.
They said tax collection usually gets a boost in the last quarter (April-June) of every fiscal as large taxpayers submit tax returns and government's development activity gears up in that period.
Meanwhile, some payers of income tax have complained undue harassment by some of the field-level tax officials despite payment of taxes.
They said these officials are inviting them by making phone calls to pay additional taxes or make underhand payment in failure.
However, none of the taxpayers agreed to be quoted out of fear for further 'harassment'.
Talking to the FE, a senior tax official said they had warned the field offices several times against harassing any taxpayers.
"Specially, some of the non-cadre officers create such nuisance, tarnishing image of the whole department," he said.
The official stressed the need for an automated system to check such irregularities so that taxpayers can pay taxes and submit returns without having to visit tax offices.
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