Income tax receipts up 28pc in July

Income tax receipts in July experienced a 28 percent year-on-year rise on the back of increased screening.
"Intensified monitoring has helped in attaining higher growth in collection," said Md Bashir Uddin Ahmed, member of tax administration and human resource management of NBR, yesterday.
Income tax receipts last month stood at Tk 1,837 crore, up from previous year's Tk 1,434 crore, according to provisional estimate of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
The collection, however, fell short of July's target by Tk 193 crore, but Ahmed tips the figures to rise further during final count.
In general, income or direct tax collection has been on the rise since fiscal 2009-10 owing to increased manpower and motivational campaigns such as tax fairs. It has been growing by over 20 percent a year to make it the second biggest source of revenue after value-added tax (VAT).
For the current fiscal year, the NBR aims to collect Tk 48,297 as income tax, which is 32 percent higher than last fiscal year's collections.
Ahmed is confident, though, that the target would be met, given facilities like the online registration system for Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TIN), which would wipe off fake TINs and help the NBR better monitor compliance by taxpayers.
Expansion of tax offices to upazila level and increased manpower will also facilitate higher collection, he added.