The National Board of Revenue (NBR) will focus on procedural simplification across income tax, VAT, and customs in the fiscal year 2025-26 instead of reducing taxes, said its Chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan, today.

"We are not aiming to reduce tax revenue. However, we want to lower the compliance burden," he said at a discussion on the upcoming budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 at the Sheraton Dhaka.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB), the Foreign Investors' Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), and the Japan-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry (JBCCI) were also present at the discussion.

Khan admitted that despite Bangladesh offering one of the lowest nominal corporate tax rates in the region at 22.5 percent, the effective burden remains high due to arbitrary assessments.

To address this, the NBR will roll out monitoring tools to evaluate tax assessment quality.

"We will track all assessments and reward officials based on merit and adherence to rules," he said, adding that this would limit discretion and build taxpayer confidence.

Efforts to tackle tax evasion are also underway. The NBR has started sending notices to non-filers, and each tax office will be given recovery targets.

While 90 percent of tax is collected through tax deducted at source and advance tax, voluntary compliance remains a challenge.

Khan said his office is considering the introduction of a long-term tax policy framework to reduce abrupt changes.

"All major shifts, including tax holidays and exemptions, will require parliamentary approval," he said.

On the customs front, Khan acknowledged taxpayers' concerns about valuation methods of customs duties and said reforms are in progress.

He said that a new online export-import tax portal has been launched to improve transparency.   

Manual audit selection has been paused.

"We will begin with random electronic audits of 0.5 percent of returns," Khan explained, adding that the figure would grow as digital systems mature.