Photo: Messenger
Most of the house owners under city corporations do not have the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). There are complaints that they do not submit income tax returns despite having taxable income. The government is losing thousands of crores of taka because of this. Now the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has taken up a new scheme to prevent these house owners’ tax evasion and bring such taxable persons and entities under the tax net.
It is known that as part of the plan of the NBR, initiatives have been taken to establish interconnection with the systems of at least 16 public and private institutions. They are expecting that 25 per cent of the customers will be under the tax net by 2025, 50 per cent by 2031, and 100 per cent by 2041.
According to the information, the current number of customers of Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC), the electricity supplier in Dhaka South City Corporation and Narayanganj city area, is 10.21 lakh.
Out of this, only 3.65 lakh people have TIN. The current number of customers of Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) in Dhaka North City Corporation area is 12.40 lakh. Although accurate information about their income tax is not available, persons concerned think that at least 60-70 per cent of these customers are outside the tax net.
Electricity consumers in these areas are all house or flat owners. That is, they do not submit tax return or pay income tax despite being house owners. This is the picture of only two organisations providing services at the field level and about a dozen organisations providing customer service at the public and private levels. Income tax officials claim that these customers are evading thousands of crores of taka in taxes every year.
To prevent this evasion, the NBR has planned to involve power supply companies DPDC and DESCO, BRTA, Office of the Chief Comptroller of Imports and Exports (CCIE), National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC), BIDA, BEPZA, BEJA, BGMEA, BKMEA, Bangladesh Bank, IBUS, various scheduled banks, city corporations, land ministry, and BTRC along with their systems as third party.
In this regard, a senior officer of NBR told The Daily Messenger that there are plans to increase revenue target rates by several times to prevent evasion through technology-based services and accurate information sharing. For this, the system of 16 public and private organisations will be interconnected. If this plan is implemented, the tax collection will be bigger and the revenue collection will increase manifold.
Besides, the current one crore TINs will double to triple. This programme will start soon with the support of the government and the World Bank. The NBR predicts that at least two crore taxpayers will come out only if they can be interconnected with the database of electricity, gas, and city corporations. Basically, the NBR is walking on the path of planning to monitor, evaluate, and control technology-based activities of income tax, VAT, import-export, and excise duty collection.
The NBR has brought a large number of individuals and organisations under TIN in the last few years to increase tax coverage. For this, returns have been made mandatory against 44 public and private services. As a positive effect, the number of TIN holders has now crossed one crore.
Besides, in order to increase the scope of taxes and stop tax evasion, the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, the Ministry of Shipping, and the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources have been in correspondence since 2022 to make the registration of motor vehicles and boats, all types of trade licences, and contractor registration or renewal mandatory for income tax returns.
As per the Income Tax Act 2023, the filing of return is mandatory in case of e-TIN. That is, there is no opportunity not to submit. But many refrain from filing returns to hide income and avoid tax. According to the latest information, the number of TIN holders in the country has crossed one crore. Out of this, 41.45 lakh people have filed income tax returns.
Meanwhile, in 11 months from July to May of the current financial year 2023-24, a revenue of Tk 3,21,510 crore 95 lakh has been collected, which is 98.70 per cent of the revised target for the said period. This is also 13.84 per cent more than the amount in the same period of the previous year.
The revised revenue collection target for the current financial year is Tk 4,10,000 crore. Of this, a revised target of Tk 3,25,740 crore 35 lakh was fixed for collection in 11 months. However, Tk 4,230 crore less was collected than that target. Tk 2,82,416 crore and 80 lakh was collected during the same period of the previous financial year (2022-23). Those concerned said that such a picture of revenue collection is positive in this year of the most economic crisis in recent times.
According to the data, income tax is ahead in terms of revenue collection. However, import-export duties and local levy are lagging behind. Income tax and travel tax have been collected at Tk 1,05,054 crore 32 lakh, whereas the target was Tk 92,628 crore 91 lakh. That is, Tk 12,425 crore 41 lakh more has been collected than the target. The collection is 18.10 per cent more than the previous year.
Value Added Tax collected at the local level was Tk 1,25,037 crore 90 lakh, whereas the target was Tk 1,32,755 crore 60 lakh. In other words, Tk 7,717 crore 70 lakh less has been collected than the target.
However, the collection was 13.87 per cent higher than the same period of the previous year.
Besides, Tk 91,418 crore 73 lakh has been collected at the level of import and export, which was Tk 8,937 crore 11 lakh less than the target. The target was Tk 1,00,355 crore 84 lakh. However, the collection was 9.29 per cent higher than the amount in the same period of the previous financial year.
Messenger/Disha
