Govt plans to make ID cards mandatory for TIN certificates
Friday, 15 May 2009
FE Report
In a bid to thwart the practice of obtaining fake TINs the government is planning to introduce mandatory submission of national identity card with the application for a TIN certificate.
The revenue board is likely to introduce the new rule from the fiscal 2009-10 and it might be proposed in the budget speech for the next fiscal.
The government move has come following the alarming rise in use of fake and duplicate taxpayer's identification numbers (TINs).
Nearly one-third of the TIN holders do not submit tax returns out of 2.2 million taxpayers. Presently, only 0.67 million (6.7 lakh) taxpayers submit tax returns every year.
"People obtained TIN certificates using fake addresses only for specific purposes, but after a certain period they changed their addresses and remained out of the taxmen's reach," a revenue official said.
The main objective of the move is to find out the actual number of taxpayers as there is a huge mismatch between the number of TIN holders and the income tax returns, he said.
"The NBR, for the first time this year, has reviewed the statistics on TIN holders. It has cancelled 39,854 fake or duplicate TINs," he said.
The Income Tax Department had been going with inaccurate statistics for a long time due to manpower shortage and lack of logistic support, he said.
Tax officials said it is a tough job to find out taxpayers by the TINs as a huge number of people obtained TINs for different purposes.
They said the national ID card can ensure the identity of the particular person who obtains the TIN certificate.
There are also widespread allegations that some corrupt tax officials were involved in issuance of TINs in exchange of money.
"As the government has announced that TIN would be issued in 24 hours, the taxmen do not get sufficient time to scrutinise the identity of an applicant," an income tax official said.
The government has made obtaining of TIN mandatory for different purposes including purchasing cars, land or applying for bank loans.
A number of people have taken two or three TINs each for those specific purposes.
The NBR has identified three areas---registration of land, flats and building, purchase of motor vehicles and credit cards---where the fake TINs are galore.
"On an average, 46.04 per cent are fake TINs in those three areas, which is a matter of great concern for the revenue collectors," the official said.
The NBR has also deployed some of its officials in Bangladesh Bank, RAJUK, the road transport authority and land registration offices to thwart the practice of using fake TINs.
In a bid to thwart the practice of obtaining fake TINs the government is planning to introduce mandatory submission of national identity card with the application for a TIN certificate.
The revenue board is likely to introduce the new rule from the fiscal 2009-10 and it might be proposed in the budget speech for the next fiscal.
The government move has come following the alarming rise in use of fake and duplicate taxpayer's identification numbers (TINs).
Nearly one-third of the TIN holders do not submit tax returns out of 2.2 million taxpayers. Presently, only 0.67 million (6.7 lakh) taxpayers submit tax returns every year.
"People obtained TIN certificates using fake addresses only for specific purposes, but after a certain period they changed their addresses and remained out of the taxmen's reach," a revenue official said.
The main objective of the move is to find out the actual number of taxpayers as there is a huge mismatch between the number of TIN holders and the income tax returns, he said.
"The NBR, for the first time this year, has reviewed the statistics on TIN holders. It has cancelled 39,854 fake or duplicate TINs," he said.
The Income Tax Department had been going with inaccurate statistics for a long time due to manpower shortage and lack of logistic support, he said.
Tax officials said it is a tough job to find out taxpayers by the TINs as a huge number of people obtained TINs for different purposes.
They said the national ID card can ensure the identity of the particular person who obtains the TIN certificate.
There are also widespread allegations that some corrupt tax officials were involved in issuance of TINs in exchange of money.
"As the government has announced that TIN would be issued in 24 hours, the taxmen do not get sufficient time to scrutinise the identity of an applicant," an income tax official said.
The government has made obtaining of TIN mandatory for different purposes including purchasing cars, land or applying for bank loans.
A number of people have taken two or three TINs each for those specific purposes.
The NBR has identified three areas---registration of land, flats and building, purchase of motor vehicles and credit cards---where the fake TINs are galore.
"On an average, 46.04 per cent are fake TINs in those three areas, which is a matter of great concern for the revenue collectors," the official said.
The NBR has also deployed some of its officials in Bangladesh Bank, RAJUK, the road transport authority and land registration offices to thwart the practice of using fake TINs.