A US proposal for deputing its "skilled revenue advisers" to help expand Bangladesh's revenue base and enhance receipt is under scrutiny, sources said.
In the proposal, the US Department of Treasury has expressed its willingness to provide technical assistance to the Bangladesh government for expanding the country's poor base of domestic revenue.
In this respect, during his recent Dhaka visit, Doland Lu, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, expressed his government's willingness to the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh to cooperate with the government.
The US Embassy in Bangladesh later requested the ministry of foreign affairs (MoFA) to seek opinion of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on a proposal sent by the US treasury department.
The proposal, forwarded by the embassy, highlights how to increase the country's tax-revenue by expanding its tax base. The assistance may give a possible outline in this regard.
Its mission is to collaborate with the revenue administration and the ministry of finance to support them and reform policies.
The department usually assigns skilled advisers to counterpart revenue administrations to mobilize revenues in accordance with law through adoption and refinement of good international practices, mitigate compliance risks, promote fairness in administration of revenue regimes, and support transparency.
In the proposal, the United States has said its treasury wing has provided revenue advisers to over 70 countries in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin American and the Caribbean.
Talking to the FE, a senior income-tax official of the National Board of Revenue said they had received the proposal and were working on it.
He said currently the European Union (EU) is supporting the domestic revenue-mobilization effort of the NBR by providing technical assistance.
Also, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been providing such assistance for a long time.
"We will make a decision after normalcy comes in the country," he says.
In the proposal, obtained by the FE, the US treasury department says its revenue projects cover 12 to 15 countries per year, based on country demand and the treasury's evaluation of the impact of collaboration.
"Office of technical assistance advisors are experienced revenue administrators, employed directly by the US government-with full careers largely at high levels in the United State's Internal Revenue or Customs Border and Protection," it reads.
Types of proposed assistance include policy advice and legislative services, management strategy and advice, design of systems and processes embodying good international practice technical training and workshops, hands-on, on-the-job guidance and mentoring, on-site resident consultation.
Its customs-advisory expertise includes tariff classification, valuation, rules of origin, free-trade agreements, customs broker, modernization, risk management, and post-clearance audit.
It is also able to extend tax-advisory expertise such as internal audit, auditing specialized industry, management of tax and customs debt, compliance strategy, processing and registration of taxpayers and importers.
Income-tax officials say the EU is providing support to check transfer mispricing through profit shifting by multinational companies while the WB has extended support to frame and execute middle-and long-term revenue strategies for direct tax mobilization.
They said the technical assistance helps to build capacity of the taxmen to mobilize direct tax shifting dependence on indirect tax mobilization.
The NBR will have to mobilize Tk 1.77 trillion in direct taxes in the current fiscal year. Share of direct tax is currently 36.6 p per cent in the total tax-revenue mobilized by the NBR.
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