NBR officials vow to continue strike

Protesting officials and employees of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) yesterday vowed to continue their pen-down strike on Saturday, pressing a three-point demand, including the repeal of a new ordinance on restructuring the revenue administration.

The other two demands are the public disclosure of a state advisory committee's report on reforms for the NBR, which was submitted to the finance ministry, and inclusive, consultative and sustainable reforms for the revenue administration.

They made the announcement at a press briefing at the NBR's headquarters following a three-hour work abstention throughout the country for a second consecutive day.

However, as before, international passenger services, export activities, and preparations for the national budget remained outside the purview of the strike.

"We want a comprehensive, inclusive, and sustainable reform of the revenue system, based on open discussion on the advisory report," said Sefat-E-Mariam, additional commissioner of the NBR, at the press conference.

"…and a white paper on the country's economic situation, engaging stakeholders, business associations, civil society, political leadership, and all relevant parties.

"We are not opposed to reforming the NBR. Officers and employees at all levels of the NBR have long been advocating for reforms in the revenue system," she said.

"What we want is for these reforms to be rational and widely acceptable, reflecting the national interest and a development-oriented philosophy," Mariam said.

The revenue administration should become more effective, progressive, and free of corruption, and the reform process must not be used as a tool to serve the vested interests of any particular group, she added.

She also raised questions over the advisory committee's recommendations not being made public.

"A special advisory committee was formed to split the NBR into two divisions, but unlike other reform reports published online, this committee's report was neither made public nor shared with the NBR," she said.

Key stakeholders, like the NBR, were kept completely in the dark. The government hastily dissolved the committee without publishing the report or holding consultations, raising suspicion, she said.

At the briefing, Mostafizur Rahman, deputy commissioner of the NBR, and Nipun Chakma, deputy commissioner, were present.

The NBR staff, under the banner of "NBR Reform Unity Council", announced the strike last Tuesday after the government issued the new ordinance the night before.

In the new ordinance, the government announced that it had decided to dissolve the NBR and Internal Resources Division, replacing them with a Revenue Policy Division and a Revenue Implementation Division.

Both will run under the Ministry of Finance.

According to the ordinance, the policy division will be responsible for formulating tax policies and setting tariffs, while the implementation division will oversee tax collection and enforcement of related rules and regulations.

Protesters within the customs and income tax cadres argue that the ordinance sidelined experienced tax professionals by transferring policymaking powers to officials from the general administration and other cadres.

Meanwhile, the NBR's public relations officer announced that NBR Chairman Abdur Rahman Khan would hold a press conference in front of the NBR headquarters in the afternoon yesterday.

However, no briefing took place.

Moreover, two groups of people, who admitted that they were neither officials nor staff of the NBR, staged demonstrations before the headquarters under the banners "Anti-fascist People" and "People's Rights Party".

One group demanded the resignation of the NBR chairman, while the other group came to voice their opposition against it.