Tax defaulters hold back progress of Pabna Municipality

Pabna Municipality is suffering with Tk 59 lakh 98 thousand pending holding taxes in the current fiscal year. Of the total, the government and non-government institutions, the key tax defaulters, have Tk 40 lakh dues.
Collection of taxes reduces this year compared to the last two fiscals. Tk 1.09 crore tax was collected from 25,850 taxpayers in Pabna Municipality this year, while the amount was around Tk 1.38 crore in 2008-09 and Tk 1.20 crore in 2007-08.
“We had collected the highest ever taxes in the two fiscal years. But the collection reduced this fiscal year after the reign of the political parties,” said Md Motiur Rahman, chief executive of Tax in Pabna Municipality.
Rahman added that although the collection money reduced, the number of taxpayers increased this year.
The Primary Education Department of Pabna has Tk 14,61,816 pending in its 24 holdings. Nine holdings under district education office also have Tk two lakh in pending, a municipality official said.
While contacted, officials of different government departments answered in different ways.
“The municipality charged a huge amount of taxes from us. We have submitted the demand to the Office of the Director General. The DG office is yet to sanction the amount so that we can we pay them,” said Abu Sayem Md Touhidul Islam, primary education officer of Pabna Sadar upazila.