National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan on Wednesday said absence of the rule of law and good governance are the main reasons for lower Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Bangladesh.
“For FDI Bangladesh is not comparable with its competitor countries, one of the main reasons is absence of good governance, and we are not focusing on the issue,” he said.
The NBR chief said this while addressing a discussion meeting on Income Tax Law 2023: Reform and Perspective at the multipurpose hall of the Revenue Building organised by BCS Taxation Association.
He said that Bangladesh is not able to give the service that should have been supposed to provide to the foreign direct investors.
“Rule of law is totally absent, we are very weak in implementing the existing laws, this is holistically everywhere,” he said.
He mentioned that the main difference between Bangladesh and other developed or civilised countries is in this particular area.
“We have many laws, but we have laxness in materialising those, we have to address this,” he said.
Khan said that business people are not afraid of paying taxes, they come to invest after calculating everything.
“An investor invest in any business after reviewing that he or she has to pay a little portion of this income,” he said.
Talking about the lower revenue collection, he said that it is true that the NBR is not collecting the revenue as per the desire and it has to be admitted.
Second report of committee to reform NBR expected next month, focusing on automation
“There are so many reasons behind that. One of the big reasons is we are in the culture of tax exemption for a long time, we have to get out from that culture gradually,” he said.
Stating that Bangladesh still generates two third of its total revenue from indirect taxes, the NBR chairman said it means so far poor people are paying the taxes.
“We have to increase the income tax collection. If we can properly collect the income tax then the tax GDP ratio will be improved, we have to focus on this issue,” he said.
He said that only the strong tax structure will not ensure the improved revenue collection, other sides also have to be strengthened.
“We have to go for faceless service system. The need of any taxpayer will be issued by digitally while the delivery will be through digitally, we have to ensure that,” he said.
He mentioned that by ensuring this the system of pilferage will be sealed and the revenue leakage will be stopped with ensuring the proper amount of revenue collection.
He also put emphasis on the establishment of accountability of the revenue officials for better service and revenue collection.
Talking about the separation of policy wing from the revenue collection wing, Khan said that on Tuesday Chief Adviser Professor Muahmmad Yunus told him that this law will be passed by the advisory council before the Eid.
He said that once done the revenue collection wing will be able to work more efficiently which will be resulted more revenue collection.
Tax Zone-6 commissioner Iqtiaruddin Md. Mamun presented the keynote paper in the programme.
BCS Taxation Association president Barrister Mutasim Billah Faruqui presided over the programme while its secretary general Syed Mohidul Hasan gave the welcome address.