Five more NBR service centres in the offing

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is going to expand its service centres across the country in a bid to facilitate obtaining new TIN and necessary services for the taxpayers.

Five more service centres will be set up in Narayanganj, Gazipur, Mymensing, Rangpur and Bogra for the local taxpayers soon.

Tax officials said, service centres outside the capital are getting more response from the taxpayers than those of the city.

Recently, the NBR refurbished the service centre in the capital to attract taxpayers.

The board will hold a meeting on Wednesday to finalise the budgetary allocation for the service centre.

"Construction of the service centre in the city was financed by the UK-based Department for International Development (DFID). But, the authorities are yet to determine who will bear the operational cost of the service centre," said a senior tax official.

The issue is likely to be resolved in the meeting, he said.

Tax officials said many taxpayers still do not know details about the existence of service centres that the government set up to provide better and speedy services to the taxpayers.

Currently, there are four service centres in operation in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi. Another one in Sylhet is under construction.

Tax officials said the number of service-seekers is increasing gradually in the city.

The government introduced the service centres in a bid to reduce intervention of the middlemen in obtaining Taxpayers Identification Number (TIN) and assistance on filling up tax returns.

Taxpayers can obtain e-TIN from the service centres also. The deadline of registration for online TIN is December 31 next.  

The NBR set up two service centres in Dhaka and Chittagong in September, 2011 with the support of the UK DFID under the Tax Administration, Capacities and Taxpayers Services (TACTS) project.

The main objective of the centre is to remove fear factor among the taxpayers and encourage voluntary tax payment by ensuring better services, tax officials said. Many people want to get speedy services without visiting tax offices for fear of harassment. They can obtain services from the centres. Also, taxpayers can find out their respective tax zones from the service centres as many found those dislocated after reorganisation of tax offices.