Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Md Abdur Rahman Khan on Monday directed income tax officials to take action against those who hold Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs) but do not file income tax returns, as well as those who submit returns without paying the applicable taxes.
He said there are 72 lakh taxpayers in the country who do not file income tax returns despite having TINs and about 30 lakh taxpayers who do not pay income tax despite filing returns.
“In order to increase collection, income tax will have to be collected from these 1 crore taxpayers according to their ability. For the fiscal year 2025-26, these 1 crore taxpayers should be the priority of income tax officers,” he said while holding a revenue review meeting at the Revenue Building in the capital.
Members of the Income Tax Department, Commissioners/Directors General in Dhaka, First and Second Secretaries (Income Tax Department) participated in the meeting and officers of the Income Tax Department outside Dhaka joined through the Zoom platform.
Abdur Rahman Khan directed the Commissioners participating in the meeting to increase the collection of arrears.
He reviewed the progress of zone-based tax collection with the Commissioners concerned, enquired about challenges in recovering arrears and gave instructions to enhance overall revenue collection.
The NBR chairman directed all concerned to be proactive in transferring income tax documents to the relevant tax zones as per the instructions of the NBR.
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He asked the officials to take necessary measures to complete the transfer of all documents within this month to ensure harassment-free services, and reiterated his commitment to ensure maximum transparency in audit selection at any cost.
“Audit selection should be done in a completely digital manner where no human influence will work. The purpose of the audit is not to increase tax collection but its main goal is to improve tax culture by preventing tax evasion,” he said.
Giving instructions to motivate those who have not filed returns (non-filers) despite having TIN to file returns, he said, those who do not file returns should be worked on.
In this regard, he instructed all concerned to ensure the filing of returns by making maximum use of manpower.
“There is no alternative to increasing the share of income tax in total revenue collection in terms of reducing income and wealth inequality, building a just society and collecting the necessary funds for running the state,” he said, adding that the Income Tax wing is failing time and again to achieve this goal.
In the outgoing fiscal year, he mentioned, the income tax collection rate has not increased against the total revenue collection by the NBR, but has decreased slightly.
The chairman instructed that survey and spot assessment activities be strengthened to identify new taxpayers.
In the revenue review meeting, members of the Income Tax Department, Director General of the Central Intelligence Cell (CIC), Commissioner of the Income Tax Intelligence and Investigation Unit, among others, participated in the discussion.