Tax fair begins today

A week-long tax fair begins today in all divisional cities as the National Board of Revenue has moved to take services to people's doorsteps.
But in 54 district towns, the fair will take place for two days. Mobile trucks will be used at the three hilly districts of Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban for one day. The fair ends on September 22.
In Dhaka, the NBR holds the fair at Officer's Club at Bailey Road to provide services to taxpayers from 10am to 5pm every day, and they will be able to submit their income tax returns for 2013-14, the NBR said in a statement.
This is the fourth time the NBR holds a tax fair to motivate people to pay taxes by offering them one-stop services such as assisting filing of tax returns, and tax payment either manually or electronically.
This year the NBR focuses on online registration and re-registration for taxpayer identification numbers (TINs)—a step launched in July to establish an electronic payment system.
Online registration is also meant to clean NBR's old database riddled with many fake and dormant TINs.
Taxpayers will also be able to register or re-register for TINs at the fair. There will be booths to assist people. The deadline for e-TIN registration will expire on December 31.
The NBR says it will have separate counters to assist senior, female, and disabled persons pay taxes. In addition to facilitating online payments, booths of Sonali and Janata banks will be at the fair premises to collect tax.
The showcase raked in Tk 831 crore from the divisional cities and 18 districts last year, which is double the previous year's collection of Tk 414 crore during the fair.
The revenue authority received 97,867 tax returns at the fair last year, up from 62,272 the previous year. It also issued 16,287 new TINs in the 2012 fair, up from 10,041 the previous fair.
This year, NBR hopes to attract 5 lakh taxpayers and log Tk 1,100 crore in revenue.