The timeline for individuals' tax-return submission has been extended until December 31 on request from taxpayers and chamber bodies, as many missed the deadline.
Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and Senior Secretary of the Internal Resources Division Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem said the board extended the timeframe by a month to facilitate the taxpayers.
The cutoff time for return submission by individual taxpayers was over Wednesday, with many far off the queue.
As the government has brought budgetary changes this year, making proof of submission of tax return mandatory for obtaining 40 types of services, many more people would have to submit tax returns.
Until Tuesday, there had been huge crowds in the field-level tax offices across the country for submission of tax returns.
The NBR chairman declared the time extension at a seminar arranged on the occasion of National Income Tax Day 2022 on the NBR premises.
Md Muslim Chowdhury, Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh, attended the programme as chief guest.
The NBR targets to increase the share of income tax to 50 per cent of the total revenue collection by raising the number of taxpayers, he noted.
"The NBR works as engine to generate revenue for the public exchequer," says Mr Chowdhury.
The CAG noted that tax exemption is part of NBR's activity but it should be kept under regulatory environment.
"Tax exemptions by the three departments---income tax, VAT and customs---should be brought under one packages to avoid separate exemption offers," he suggests.
He feels that tax exemption could be calculated in the assessment stage of the each tax file to preserve the data without any further intervention.
The account-general also suggests operating the tax commissionerates on functional system instead of existing geographical basis.
Mr Chowdhury also recommends reducing income inequality by introducing wealth tax as existing surcharge is not an effective tool in this matter.
NBR member Shaheen Akhter delivered welcome note while Dr Shams Uddin Ahmed presented keynote at the seminar.
Director-General of BCS Tax Academy M Fazlul Haque, Customs Member MD Masud Sadiq and income-tax member Pradyut Kumar Sarkar were panel discussants.
Ms Shaheen Akhter said the NBR had received 2.2 million income-tax returns until Tuesday against 1.5 million returns in the same period last year, achieving a 35-percent growth.
Against the tax returns, the NBR received Tk 27.32 billion in income taxes with a 40.72-percent growth, year on year.
Mr Sams Uddin said tax-GDP ratio could be much higher if the NBR refrained from offering tax waivers.
"The misconceptions on Tax-GDP ratio would not exist if the NBR could include the figure of tax exemptions in its budget exercises," he told the function.
Mr Masud Sadiq said expenditures for tax collection are poor too alongside poor tax-GDP ratio.
He suggests automation for making the income-tax department sustainable, which should collect maximum of tax revenue.
In the keynote presentation, Mr Sams Uddin showed how income-tax collection grew from Tk 291.33 billion to Tk 1.02 trillion in the last one decade.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
