NBR cracks whip on homeowners

Around 40,000 apartment owners do not pay taxes despite having taxable incomes coming from rents, the chairman of the country's tax authority said yesterday.
“They even do not have any TINs [tax identification numbers],” said Md Ghulam Hussain at a luncheon meeting of Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
Earlier, the National Board of Revenue started collecting information on homeowners of metropolitan cities from various agencies, along with door-to-door visits.
The NBR resorted to the hunt as a large number of landlords have been submitting returns by hiding their actual incomes from rent.
“Bangladesh needs more foreign direct investment [FDI] to become a middle-income country by 2021. But the growth of FDI is very inconsistent due to infrastructure bottlenecks,” said Syed Ershad Ahmed, president of the chamber.