The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has intensified its tax survey, inspection, monitoring and realisation to boost the Tax GDP ratio, currently the lowest in the South Asian region. The poor situation exists although NBR has recently witnessed a 9.51 per cent growth in individual income tax return submission.“The Board has already directed all the field offices to intensify and strengthen their respective tax survey to have a justified growth with other wings,” a senior official of the NBR told UNB wishing anonymity.He said that the Board has also directed the field offices to give extra efforts for collecting advance income tax, which is a good source of collection. Also read: Whitening black money: Stock exchanges ask NBR to continue it in stock marketThe revenue target for the NBR for FY2021-22 has been fixed at 10.7 per cent, higher than the revised target of the FY2020-21. The revenue collection was set at Tk 330,078 crore during FY2021-22.In the last FY2020-21 the revised revenue target was Tk 301,000 crore while it was set Tk 330,000 in the main budget.Of the total target the VAT wing will contribute the lion share with Tk 127,745 crore which is 11 per cent higher than the revised target of the last fiscal. In the last fiscal the target was Tk 125, 163 crore.The target for Income Tax and Tax on Profit has been set Tk 104, 952 crore where it was Tk 103, 945 crore in the last fiscal. Also read: Even government entities press NBR for tax exemption: NBR ChairmanThe revenue collection from import duty will be Tk 37, 907 crore, Tk 54,465 crore from from Supplementary Duty, Tk 56 crore from export duty, Tk 3825 crore from Excise Duty while Tk 1050 crore from other taxes and duties.As part of intensifying the tax survey information of the flat and house owners in posh areas like Gulshan, Banani, Uttara, Dhanmondi of the capital city will be gathered.The eligible but not enlisted persons will be given electronic tax identification number (e-TIN) instantly. “Proper directives have been given to the field level officials,” the NBR official said.Punitive measures will be taken against the e-TIN holders who fail to submit their income tax return or apply for time extension.The NBR teams will visit houses, shops and other commercial establishments in the city’s various areas to find out the potential taxpayers. The officials will take support from service agencies to scrutinise information related to income, wealth and property of the potentially eligible taxpayers.The survey teams are collecting information related to national identity card, trade licence and other business documents from people having income from house or business properties and from service or other professions.NBR has directed the tax commissioners to bring all eligible persons and organisation under the tax net and take initiative to remove the phobia regarding tax payment, sources said.It also asked to intensify the tax survey and activate the inactive TIN numbers as submitting income tax return has been made mandatory for every TIN holder from this fiscal.The Income Tax Wing of the NBR has already given necessary directives to the field offices in this regard.As a part of the internal survey, the field level officials have already collected possible taxpayers information from city corporations, Rajuk and sub-registrar offices. This is popularly called ‘secondary data’. Secondary data refers to the information of the individuals that are already kept with an organisation.The NBR also has started to collect information of the potential taxpayers at the upazila level through secondary data gathering, otherwise known as internal survey.According to data from the April 2021 issue of the World Economic Outlook, the tax to GDP ratio of the country has been 9.9 per cent on an average since 2016-2020, while it is 19.67 per cent for India, 21.50 per cent for Nepal, 14.88 for Pakistan, 12.74 per cent for Sri Lanka.The ratio is 24.72 per cent for developing countries and 35.81 per cent for developed countries, according to the data.The tax-to-GDP ratio is a ratio of a nation's tax revenue relative to its gross domestic product, the value of goods and services produced in a country during a certain period. The ratio is also a marker of how well the government controls a country's economic resources.According to an official document, the tax to GDP ratio in the current fiscal has been estimated at 10.7 per cent.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has sought a stronger role from the heads of Bangladesh Missions abroad to boost trade and investment, and improve the quality of services that the missions offer to expatriates. He also alerted the heads of missions about the Prime Minister’s zero tolerance policy to corruption and advised them to avoid any incident that may harm the reputation of the respective mission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Bangladesh as a whole. “You all know our Prime Minister’s policy is zero tolerance to corruption. I don’t want to see anything in our missions abroad that harms our reputation. We don’t want to hear any such thing. You remain alert on that front,” Dr Momen conveyed the message to Bangladesh Missions head abroad seeking their strong position against corruption. READ: Bangladesh seaweed is a goldmine waiting to be tapped: FM The Foreign Minister came up with a slew of suggestions during his recent virtual interactions with the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of Bangladesh outlining the course of actions in the New Year – 2022 to ensure quality services without compromising with honesty and sincerity. State Minister for Foreign Minister Md Shahriar Alam, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen, Secretary (East) Mashfee Binte Shams, Secretary (West) Shabbir Ahmad Chowdhury and Secretary (Maritime Affairs Unit) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rear Admiral (retd) Md Khurshed Alam also joined the interactions.  

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday asked all concerned to produce products that meet the global standards to enlarge the country’s export basket. “All need to focus on producing the products of international standards,” she said while inaugurating weeklong Ninth National SME Product Fair 2021 at Bangabandhu International Conference Center. The Prime Minister joined the programme from her official residence Ganobhaban. She emphasized producing products with local raw materials which will be beneficial for the country as well as its agriculture and industrialisation. “This will help create entrepreneurs as well as improve the competitive edge of products,” she said. The Prime Minister said the government is giving importance to agriculture- and food-processing industries as the demand for these items are constantly increasing across the world. Saving Arable Lands    Discouraging indiscriminate establishment of industries, Hasina said the government wants to save agricultural lands for more food production. “The demand for food items will never decline; it’ll go up for sure. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for food has increased. I know many developed countries are suffering from food shortage,” she said. Encouraging Entrepreneurs Hasina said the government is extending all-out support for increasing the number of entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. “Anyone can be an entrepreneur if one wants to. I urge the youth to be entrepreneurs instead of running after jobs. After education, don’t look for jobs, let's be entrepreneurs yourselves. We’re taking all sorts of steps to create new entrepreneurs,” she said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday put immense importance to research on demand, production and marketing to flourish small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the country.