The much-waited expansion proposal of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Sunday got approval of the secretary-level committee with an aim to boost revenue collection upon being equipped with adequate manpower and infrastructure facilities. The revenue board eyes 22.74 per cent average growth in revenue collection in the 2011-12 fiscal after expansion. The Income Tax wing has estimated Tk 726.51 billion income tax collection, from the existing Tk 210.05 billion, in the next five years after expansion of the wing. The VAT department has targeted 32 per cent growth, while the Customs looks to 10 per cent growth in the first year of expansion. "We have got approval of the secretary-level committee on the expansion proposal today," NBR chairman Dr. Nasiruddin Ahmed told the FE Sunday. The proposal would now be placed before the cabinet for final approval, he added. NBR officials expressed their hope on speedy release of imported goods and resolving the pending cases involving Tk 48.62 billion after expansion of the board. The number of circle offices of income tax will be raised to 649, while Customs and VAT offices to 254. Manpower for income tax department will be increased to 8932, a rise by 67.77 per cent. The number of income tax members will be doubled to eight from the existing four, while the Customs and Value Added Tax (VAT) department will get additional four members. There will be nine first secretaries for income tax followed by seven each for Customs and VAT. Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) will get two separate director generals (DG) for income tax, and customs and VAT. Fresh recruitment to the board remained suspended for years following legal tangles. First class (cadre) posts will be raised to 570 from the exiting 214 and non-cadre ones to 947 from 506. The number of appraisers, inspectors will be increased to 4702, while class-three grade employees to 6426 and class-four employees to 755. The revenue officials will be provided with more logistic support including cars, microbuses, motorbikes, copiers, computers and their accessories to facilitate the work of tax officials. Four new administrative offices of the Customs, the Excise and VAT commisionarate wing will be set up in Dhaka (east and west), and in Comilla and Rangpur. A total of ten foreign offices will be set up in India, China, Singapore, South Korea, Dubai, Japan, Italy, Malaysia, Thailand and New York for the Customs and VAT Department. Presently, the NBR has a single office of customs department in Brussels. Customs and VAT officials said the department would almost be vacant over the next three to four years if the new appointments were not made immediately. They said overall revenue collection depends largely on the two departments. Acute manpower shortage will pose a serious challenge to achieving the revenue target set for the current fiscal. According to the expansion proposal, nearly 37 per cent of the posts at the Customs and VAT Department are vacant, while 10-12 officials go into retirement each month. Income tax officials said they would be able to raise efficiency with the help of advanced technology by increasing 68 per cent of the manpower.
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