Fake TINs go unchecked
The tax administration is yet to take punitive measures against alleged forgeries in submission of certificates of tax identification numbers (TINs) by a huge number of credit card holders.
There are allegations from different bank officials that the certificates that were submitted to the banks concerned by around three lakh clients for getting credit cards have been found fake.
The officials also point out that such malpractice goes unabated because of the non-enforcement of a law relating to such offence.
They argue that the banks are not in a position to probe such forgery, even though it is found after receiving the TIN certificates from the clients as per rules of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Md Bashir Uddin Ahmed, NBR's member (administration and monitoring), said: “We have information that people are purchasing credit cards, cars and flats with fake TIN certificates. These frauds are supposed to face legal actions.”
A survey, conducted by the Directorate of Inspection (taxes) during the immediate past caretaker government's rule, reveals that over 50 percent of TIN certificates used for obtaining credit cards were fake, followed by 33 percent in the case of purchasing motor vehicles.
Kanan Kumar Roy, director general of tax inspection directorate, also pointed to the fact that the NBR had not gone tough on the offenders although they sent a survey report to its chairman.
According to the banking industry, besides the three lakh credit card holders, currently in existence, the purchasers of around 20,000 cars and 10,000 flats that are sold out a year on an average have to show TIN certificates at the time of buying.
On TIN certificate forgery, Mashukur Rahman, sales executive of the Credit Card Department at Standard Chartered Bank, said, “We have sent all the TIN certificates to NBR for verification in line with its directives, but it did not respond to us.”
StanChart's Head of Corporate Affairs Bitopi Das said: “We only receive the main documents the NBR provides to us. We're not in a position to crosscheck those documents.”
Antar Zaman, in-charge, Credit Card Department at Eastern Bank Limited, said his bank is aware of such forgery and follows the NBR directives regularly.
The NBR last year asked the fake TIN holders to regularise their TINs by paying Tk 3,000, but only 594 TIN-holders responded.
Besides, it made payment of Tk 1,000 mandatory for obtaining a TIN in a bid to check any duplication, but this move also turned futile.
The NBR member said the board is now developing a Central Data Centre to collect and manage all taxpayers' information.
Once the centre is in place, Basir Uddin hoped, such forgery will come to a halt.
The NBR top official also pointed to Section 165 (a) of the Income Tax Ordinance that can send a person having fake TIN in jail, ranging from three months to three years, or imposes fine or both.
However, the NBR never awarded punishment to any of its clients for TIN forgery.
NBR has 22 lakh registered TIN holders, of which about seven lakh submit tax returns regularly.
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