Undisclosed income legalisation time expires
Monday, 3 November 2008
FE Report
The four-month special opportunity to formalise undeclared income expired Sunday with poor response from the targeted group of people.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has received responses from the middle-income group of people like previous years while a large amount of lawfully earned money is yet to enter the formal channel, officials said.
Taxmen said both ignorance and lack of willingness are the major reasons for unsatisfactory response from the people.
In the current fiscal, the government has offered the opportunity to declare undisclosed income with the payment of 7.0 per cent penal tax in addition to normal tax rate from July 1 to October 31.
As the last day of the opportunity was Friday the revenue board received taxes from undisclosed income on the next two days, both Saturday and Sunday.
The NBR officials said they are yet to compile the latest statistics on how many people declared their money as people were rushing to the board at the last moment.
According to a provisional figure, more that 6000 people disclosed their income until Saturday. The NBR has mopped up taxes worth Tk 600 million (Tk 60 crores) against the declared amount.
Response of the taxpayers was extremely poor until October 15 as only 2000 people declared undisclosed income worth Tk 1.50 billion. Against the declared amount, the NBR collected tax worth Tk 200 million.
Last year, the similar opportunity received response from 42,459 people who declared Tk 52.13 billion with the payment of 5.0 per cent penal tax in addition to normal tax rate.
In an analysis the NBR officials found that last year only a handful of the targeted bigwigs disclosed their income although the government mopped up taxes worth Tk 8.02 billion from the offer.
"Only, middle-income group of people responded to the opportunity last year as massive crackdown against the tax evaders worked as a tonic," an official said.
This year, the mode of the offer was different in a way that it barred the black money from entering the formal channel, he said.
"Also, changes in political situation, preparation for upcoming polls and global economic fallout were the main reasons for poor responses from the undisclosed money holders," he said.
At the budget implementation planning that was submitted to the cabinet, the NBR had estimated at least Tk 3.0 billion tax from the opportunity to formalise undisclosed income.
The four-month special opportunity to formalise undeclared income expired Sunday with poor response from the targeted group of people.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has received responses from the middle-income group of people like previous years while a large amount of lawfully earned money is yet to enter the formal channel, officials said.
Taxmen said both ignorance and lack of willingness are the major reasons for unsatisfactory response from the people.
In the current fiscal, the government has offered the opportunity to declare undisclosed income with the payment of 7.0 per cent penal tax in addition to normal tax rate from July 1 to October 31.
As the last day of the opportunity was Friday the revenue board received taxes from undisclosed income on the next two days, both Saturday and Sunday.
The NBR officials said they are yet to compile the latest statistics on how many people declared their money as people were rushing to the board at the last moment.
According to a provisional figure, more that 6000 people disclosed their income until Saturday. The NBR has mopped up taxes worth Tk 600 million (Tk 60 crores) against the declared amount.
Response of the taxpayers was extremely poor until October 15 as only 2000 people declared undisclosed income worth Tk 1.50 billion. Against the declared amount, the NBR collected tax worth Tk 200 million.
Last year, the similar opportunity received response from 42,459 people who declared Tk 52.13 billion with the payment of 5.0 per cent penal tax in addition to normal tax rate.
In an analysis the NBR officials found that last year only a handful of the targeted bigwigs disclosed their income although the government mopped up taxes worth Tk 8.02 billion from the offer.
"Only, middle-income group of people responded to the opportunity last year as massive crackdown against the tax evaders worked as a tonic," an official said.
This year, the mode of the offer was different in a way that it barred the black money from entering the formal channel, he said.
"Also, changes in political situation, preparation for upcoming polls and global economic fallout were the main reasons for poor responses from the undisclosed money holders," he said.
At the budget implementation planning that was submitted to the cabinet, the NBR had estimated at least Tk 3.0 billion tax from the opportunity to formalise undisclosed income.