Govt gives nod to tax adminreform points placed by IMF
Doulot Akter Mala | Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Doulot Akter Mala
The government has agreed on some major points to reform the tax administration as per recommendation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) providing US$ 1.0 billion External Credit Fund (ECF) for Bangladesh. The recommendations include introduction of new laws for Value Added Tax (VAT) and income tax, separation of tax policy and implementation wing, and full-fledged introduction of online tax returns by 2012, said a senior revenue board official. Other suggestions of IMF include expanding large taxpayers' unit, building MTU (medium taxpayers' unit) and STU (small taxpayers' unit) to strengthen monitoring, automation and following a time-bound action plan for revenue collection, he said. The suggestions have already been accepted by the finance secretary and the finance minister with a view to getting the ECF fund, he added. "The National Board of Revenue (NBR) will conduct a workshop for all of its commissioners and high officials of the board on March 15-16 to discuss the issues," he said. The board will spell out the details of the agreed steps, in line with the IMF suggestions, for revenue board reform, the revenue board official said. "The multilateral donor agency has set the preconditions in line with the work plan of the NBR that was provided to the agency earlier," he added. Meanwhile, an IMF team, which arrived Monday, has already started discussing with the government high-ups the different issues regarding its fund support. The team will talk to NBR, Bangladesh Bank and the finance ministry during its between on March 8 and March18. The board will discuss all of the issues with the heads of all field offices to explain to them the next course of action plan, the official said. Another official of the board said, the NBR has organised the workshop to motivate taxmen on the IMF conditions to avoid any untoward situation in implementation of the measures in future. "We need full cooperation of field offices to implement any new measures. For the first time, the board has arranged such a workshop to discuss policy decisions with the field level officials," he added.
The government has agreed on some major points to reform the tax administration as per recommendation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) providing US$ 1.0 billion External Credit Fund (ECF) for Bangladesh. The recommendations include introduction of new laws for Value Added Tax (VAT) and income tax, separation of tax policy and implementation wing, and full-fledged introduction of online tax returns by 2012, said a senior revenue board official. Other suggestions of IMF include expanding large taxpayers' unit, building MTU (medium taxpayers' unit) and STU (small taxpayers' unit) to strengthen monitoring, automation and following a time-bound action plan for revenue collection, he said. The suggestions have already been accepted by the finance secretary and the finance minister with a view to getting the ECF fund, he added. "The National Board of Revenue (NBR) will conduct a workshop for all of its commissioners and high officials of the board on March 15-16 to discuss the issues," he said. The board will spell out the details of the agreed steps, in line with the IMF suggestions, for revenue board reform, the revenue board official said. "The multilateral donor agency has set the preconditions in line with the work plan of the NBR that was provided to the agency earlier," he added. Meanwhile, an IMF team, which arrived Monday, has already started discussing with the government high-ups the different issues regarding its fund support. The team will talk to NBR, Bangladesh Bank and the finance ministry during its between on March 8 and March18. The board will discuss all of the issues with the heads of all field offices to explain to them the next course of action plan, the official said. Another official of the board said, the NBR has organised the workshop to motivate taxmen on the IMF conditions to avoid any untoward situation in implementation of the measures in future. "We need full cooperation of field offices to implement any new measures. For the first time, the board has arranged such a workshop to discuss policy decisions with the field level officials," he added.