The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to trace Bangladeshi citizens having 'second homes' and investment abroad in a bid to check their tax payment status here.
The NBR chief recently instructed the taxmen to communicate with four countries, namely, Malaysia, Canada, Dubai and Qatar, believed to be prime destinations of capital flying out of Bangladesh, and other countries.
NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain disclosed this at a press conference of the Eastern Bank Limited (EBL) at a city hotel Wednesday.
The EBL arranged the press conference to unveil a 'tax pocket guide' to facilitate individual taxpayers basic information on income tax-related matters.
Speaking at the conference, the NBR chairman said the taxmen would communicate with the Malaysian High Commission soon for exchanging information on the Bangladeshi owners of 'second homes' in Malaysia.
According to an unofficial data, there are more than 10,000 Bangladeshi 'second home' owners in Malaysia.
Taxmen would find out how many of the 'second home owners' pay taxes to the public exchequer, he said.
There could be thousands of money laundering cases, launched by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) if the government can collect correct information on money laundering.
"We have agreements to exchange taxpayers' information with some 33 countries. The agreements will be scrutinised to find out bottlenecks in sharing of information," he said.
Mr Hussain said tax compliance and development of tax culture are needed to increase the number of taxpayers.
"There are some eight million Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), according to the data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). I wonder how many of them pay tax," he said.
Tax education is needed to remove the fear factor and 'anticipated' hassle of the taxpayers, Mr Hussain said.
"The NBR has curtailed the discretionary power of taxmen and set criteria for auditing tax files under universal self-assessment system to check taxpayers' hassles," he said.
The NBR chief stressed the need for book-keeping on the part of taxpayers to pay proper amount of tax and avoid middlemen who, according to him, sometimes doctor the tax files.
He said there are 1,72,000 owners of houses in six metropolitan cities who do not have Taxpayers Identification Numbers (TINs). House owners avoid tax registration and payment of stamp duty by enlisting them with their respective cooperative societies.
Also, 62 per cent shop owners at the city's Bashundhara City Shopping Mall are paying VAT but 46 per cent are of them pay paying income tax.
The NBR chairman stressed the need for discouraging cash transaction saying that 'there is no necessity to issue notes above Tk 100. All transactions should be held through banking channel or credit/debit cards.'
"We are moving around with 1.1 to 1.12 million taxpayers. It should be investigated why number of taxpayers is not increasing in line with the growth of the economy," he added.
The NBR chairman appreciated the banks' contribution to tax-revenue collection.
EBL Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer Ali Reza Iftekhar, also chairman to the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh, said the pocket book would help the bankers and its clients understand income tax and build awareness.
"Tax net should be widened horizontally. Currently, tax is being imposed vertically on existing taxpayers," he said.
Mr Iftekhar said his bank will organise a seminar to build awareness and remove fear factor in payment of tax.
doulot_akter@yahoo.com