However, one thing is troubling a section of taxpayers. For a good number of years the previous governments gave options to the taxpayers to pay tax on previously undeclared savings, a process called "whitening of black money." A person may have money from many sources which may not have been declared in the tax returns. I can guarantee that almost all the taxpayers have certain amounts which are beyond that declared one, not to speak of the non-taxpayers.

Last year, there was debate on this matter in the media and in the parliament, finally a last opportunity was given to people. The government repeatedly announced and assured that no action would be taken against those who had declared such amount and there would be no harassment. We have seen that people were cautious in the earlier years and a small amount of tax was collected. But last year a few hundred crore taka was realized as tax, which otherwise would never have been paid, and NBR was not in a position to realize that tax. Now it is announced that there will be a secret investigation to find if there is additional money with those taxpayers! This is not fair at all.

If corruption is proved against anyone then he may be singled out for punitive action. With the additional powers given to the tax authorities this may create havoc. When there are crores of people out there who do not pay tax at all and many who did not respond to the opportunity offered, it is really disheartening that the taxpayers who paid additional tax are now going to be taken to task. It appears that the NBR has adopted the policy of not taking the trouble to catch the wild fouls, when they have easy preys in their cages!

Shall we assume that it was better that we kept silent and not responded to the offer of the government? Where will the government's credibility stand when people will treat this as a trap, and in future any attempt whatsoever will be looked upon suspiciously as 'a wolf in sheep's skin'. No one wants to cheat his own country.