Tax fair ends today

FE Team | Published: September 30, 2010 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The five-day tax-fair ends today (Thursday) with the expiry of deadline for submission of individuals' tax returns.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) earlier extended the deadline for tax return once or twice but this year it has made it clear that neither the tax fair nor the deadline would be extended.
"We will not extend the deadline. Time for tax returns will expire with the end of tax fair," said NBR Member (income tax administration and monitoring) Basir Uddin Ahmed.
The tax-fair remains open until 6.00 pm but circle offices have been receiving returns until 8.00 pm, he said.
"We did not receive any instruction yet from the high-ups on extension of deadline," he said.
He expressed his satisfaction on response of people in the tax fairs both in Dhaka and Chittagong. An NBR team Wednesday visited the tax fair at Chittagong.
According to available statistics, NBR has received Tk 500 million income tax in the fair in Dhaka until Wednesday. Some 17,252 tax returns were submitted in the last four days in the tax fair. Nearly 4000 new taxpayers obtained TIN (taxpayers' identification number) in the fair.
The NBR has expanded the fair space after it has found a long queue of taxpayers. From Wednesday, the new taxpayers have been taking TIN from a separate floor of the Institute of Diploma Engineers.
It has been found that there were few taxpayers in the tax offices. Every year, zonal offices of income tax department see a huge rush of taxpayers on last two-three days. A majority of the taxpayers found the tax fair convenient for them and easy to identify the location.
Tax officials said this year a large number of people are seeking time extension as they were not prepared for the strict stand of the government for not extending time.
Meanwhile, our Chittagong office adds: In view of encouraging response from tax payers in the capital city Dhaka and port city Chittagong the government will arrange income tax fair in all divisional cities from next year.
NBR chairman Nasiruddin Ahmed said this after visiting different stalls of Chittagong Income Tax fair at the gymnasium ground of Chittagong MA Aziz Stadium Wednesday afternoon.
He stated that 10 top tax payers throughout the country will be awarded tax card. Offering incentives for paying record amount of income tax is under process in the ministry of finance, he said.
Two more tax regions will be set up in Chittagong and Comilla, he added.