Four specialized tax brigades being fielded

Four new specialized tax wings are set to hit the turf for direct tax collection from foreign companies and snipping out missing sources to boost revenue and bridge finance gaps.
Officials have said the wings would be dedicated to international taxes, automated tax collection and taxpayer services, tax intelligence and investigation and source-tax management.
Recently, the NBR issued an order for the field-level tax offices to implement the expansion plan, approved by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) earlier.
In the order, the income-tax administration wing under the National Board of Revenue (NBR) instructed transferring the required tax files and stationery.
A total of 56 tax zones, with 25 new ones, would provide services to the taxpayers under a rearranged format in different phases.
Tax officials expect a twofold increase in collection of direct taxes after full-fledged implementation of new tax zones.
The NBR targets collecting direct tax worth Tk 1.54 trillion in the current fiscal year.
In the first phase, some 10 new tax zones would start operation along with existing tax zones.
Tax intelligence and investigation, e-tax-management unit and source tax (withholding tax)- management units would start operation in the first phase too.
In the second phase, two tax zones in Chattogram, Coxes Bazar, Faridpur, Narsingdi, Jashore, Kushtia, Dinajpur, and Noakhali zones would resume operation.
International Tax unit, tax zones in Pabna, two tax -appeal zones in Dhaka, one in Chattogram and Rangpur each would start operation.
Talking to the FE, Syed Mohammad Abu Daud, Member of Tax Administration and Human Resource Management wing of the NBR, said expansion of the tax zones would pay off to increase country’s tax -GDP ratio to double digits.
"The specialized units would not have any judicial power, and work intensively to detect anomalies," he said.
The units would hand over the cases to the tax commissionerates to take punitive steps in case of any irregularities identified, he added.
Mr Daud, however, said implementation of expansion plan of tax offices in three phases would need at least two years.
Existing tax zones with 31 income tax offices across the country were designed to serve and monitor 1,1 million individual taxpayers as of 2011, when the last expansion took place.
The number of registered taxpayers’ or Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) now rose above 9.0 million while tax offices remained same.
Taxmen say scarcity of manpower, infrastructure, and logistics is the major obstacle to providing better services to the taxpayers and checking tax evasion.
During the last expansion in 2011, each of the tax zones was assigned to serve 50,000 to 60,000 taxpayers on average which has now surged above 250,000.
The mammoth task of mobilizing revenue from growth centers in upazilas would be possible now after the NBR executes the expansion plan.
Currently, country’s tax-GDP ratio is below 8.0 per cent-- one of the lowest in this continent.
However, share of direct tax has jumped four times to 34 in the last five decades amid the limitations.
The share of direct tax was only 9.72 per cent in 1972-73 that increased to 13.79 per cent in 1980-81, 20.03 per cent in 1990-91, 19.44 per cent in 2000-2001, 28.09 per cent in 2009-2010 and 36 per cent in 2022-23, NBR data revealed.
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