E-payment yet to help large taxpayers

The government's effort to facilitate taxpayers with the e-payment system is yet to gain momentum, as large taxpayers are unable to avail the facility due to absence of account transfer system.
The e-payment system, inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on May 26, 2012, remains unutilised in collecting big chunk of revenue for the public exchequer.
Large taxpayers, including importers and corporate, cannot pay substantial amount of tax online, as pre-paid cards and credit-debit cards have a certain limit.
Currently, taxpayers have to purchase pre-paid cards or use credit-debit cards, having a specific limit, to pay tax online.
The e-payment system has been launched to facilitate payment of income tax, Value Added Tax (VAT) and customs duty.
Marginal taxpayers are availing the facility so far, while the large ones are waiting for introduction of account-to-account tax transfer system.
An income tax official said launching the account transfer system is now at the final stage.
"Launching of the system is getting delayed due to the ongoing political volatility," he said.
Sonali Bank Limited will sign agreements with three multi-national banks - Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC and City Bank NA - to launch the account-to-account system.
After introducing the system tax can be transferred directly from the taxpayers' bank accounts, the official also said.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) will gradually launch the system for the clients of other banks. Then, taxpayers with large income, VAT payers and importers will be able to pay tax directly from their bank accounts, he added.
The NBR introduced the e-payment system with the support of Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund (BICF), a wing of World Bank (WB), to reduce hassles in tax payment.
Q-cash is the processor of the whole system to deposit money from accounts of the taxpayers to the public exchequer. Sonali Bank is working as settlement bank for the e-payment system.
Bangladesh Bank and Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh are also co-coordinators of the electronic payment system.