NBR seeks to amend treasury rules, e-payment of income tax from July

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Doulot Akter Mala
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) will urge the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to amend the treasury rules to help it introduce e-payment of income tax from July next.
Officials said amendment to the treasury rules is needed for accepting e-payment along with cheque, cash and other options.
The revenue board has taken the decision to launch the system from next fiscal at a meeting with the senior officials of central bank, Sonali bank, auditor generals (CAG) office and ITCL (IT Consultants Limited) that operates Q-cash services.
The board will introduce the system in phases, and to begin with it will first bring large and corporate taxpayers under 'Digital NBR' project, said a senior tax official.
All the stakeholders have agreed to co-operate with NBR for introducing the on-line tax payment to resolve procedural complexities and harassment of taxpayers, he said.
The NBR has already introduced online tax filing system from this month, but the process will remain incomplete unless the authority launches online tax payment, he added.
NBR headquarters will be able to verify daily tax payment statistics of individuals and companies of its tax circles after introduction of the system, the official said.
The system will help stop harassment of tax payers and revenue leakage, he said.
The authority will be able to make faster move and revise policy measures after examining the trend of tax payment as the system will bring transparency in the tax administration, he added.
Currently, the NBR obtain data from zone offices to see tax payment status and review the trend.
Revenue board authorities have to spend a long time for gathering all data and take action on the basis of those, the official said.
"Taxpayers' complaints against harassment of taxmen will be resolved from next fiscal with the online tax payment and return filing system," he said.
The country's tax-GDP ratio is still 8.5, lowest in the South Asia. This is due to complexities in tax payment procedure and lack of awareness of the tax payers.
The government has taken the move to digitalise the revenue board aiming to simplify the system, the official said.