Reuters
Dhaka
The chief of Bangladesh’s tax collection body, the National Board of Revenue (NBR), said yesterday that his office will be able to meet the higher revenue collection target set for it in the current fiscal year.
The target for the year to June 2016 is $22.61bn, 31% higher than the previous financial year, said Nojibur Rahman, the chairman of the NBR.
“The target will be achievable as potential to collect income tax, value added tax (VAT) and customs for this year is much higher,” Nojibur said in an interview.
He said that several programmes are ongoing for stimulating tax payments along with legal and administrative
reforms.
“There are eightmn solvent economic units owned by entrepreneurs who have taxable income,” Nojibur said, adding that only 1.6mn people are paying tax regularly.
“Thus, 6.4mn solvent entrepreneurs are remaining out of the tax net.”
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), in its economic census, found that Bangladesh’s economy had inherent strengths in agriculture, industry and service sectors.
“Zero tolerance will be shown for corruption, harassment, indiscipline and misconduct by our officials,”
Nojibur added.
He said that all ranks in NBR and field offices have been focussed on achieving the target.
A monthly report card has been established to reward performance as well as motivate underperformers.
“This has been done without any advice from the World Bank or IMF or any other agencies.”
Reform is being implemented in customs, VAT and income tax both in legislative and
administrative areas.