NBR working to address limitations

The new income tax law suffers from some limitations and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is working to address those issues to make it more taxpayer-friendly, the revenue authority's chairman said yesterday.

"The law has been translated from English to Bangla so all the issues could not be noticed during this phase. We are seeing that there is a need for more fine-tuning in some areas of the new law," NBR chief Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem said at a seminar.

He was speaking at an event organised by the NBR to mark "National Tax Day 2023" at its headquarters in the capital's Agargaon.

The Income Tax Act 2023, which came into effect in June this year and replaced the Income Tax Ordinance 1984, was not fully welcomed by stakeholders.

"We consulted many stakeholders when converting the new income tax law from English to Bengali. We were trying to come up with a perfect law," Muneem said.

Many people have taxable income but they do not want to pay taxes because they are afraid to go to the tax office, he said, adding: "We need to make sure they're not scared. That is why NBR officials must have good relations with taxpayers."

Bangladesh has 94 lakh registered taxpayers but the number of return filers remains low.

As of November 29 this year, the number of return submissions stands at slightly over 23 lakhs.

Nearly 36 lakh taxpayers filed their income and expenditure statement in the fiscal year (FY) 2022-23, up 38 percent year-on-year from 25.9 lakh, NBR data showed.

Income tax collection has increased three-fold in the past 12 years, ‍said Sams Uddin Ahmed, member for tax policy at the NBR, during his presentation.

He informed that in FY2011-12, income tax collection amounted to Tk 29,133 crore, which increased to Tk 111,792 crore in FY2022-23.

Continuous growth in income tax collection is being achieved by expanding the tax net and simplifying tax services, Ahmed said.

He added that income tax collections had grown in the past fiscal year despite the fallouts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In the last five decades, the share of direct taxes in total revenue has increased by almost four times to 35 percent in FY2022-23, he added.

Abu Mohammad Amin Uddin, attorney general of Bangladesh, said if taxpayers could be made aware of their duty to pay taxes and what they will gain or lose, then they would pay taxes.

Besides, he also thinks that income tax law will be easier to understand since it has been translated into Bangla.