The government has announced plans to make all its services completely paperless. This initiative is part of the broader “Smart Bangladesh by 2041” vision, aiming to leverage frontier technologies to transform governance. According to an official document recently presented in the Parliament, the government aims to achieve 100 percent paperless, simplified, and personalized services. “All government services will be made 100 percent paperless, simplified, and personalized to enable frontier-technology-driven on-demand services,” the document states. Key components of this transformation include making all services accessible and interoperable through the Smart Bangladesh Stack, a digital infrastructure framework. Additionally, data-driven, AI-based dashboards will be introduced for all ministries and departments to enhance decision-making processes. By 2041, the government aims to significantly improve its standing in the UN e-Government Development Index, targeting a rank below 50. It also seeks to increase the tax-GDP ratio to at least 22 percent through technological advancements. Finance Minister outlines vision for 'Smart Bangladesh' in National Budget for FY 2024-25 Another critical goal is to ensure universal and quality healthcare for all citizens, reinforcing the government's commitment to comprehensive social welfare. One of the strategic goals for Smart Bangladesh is to establish the country as an innovative nation by 2041. To achieve this, the government is nurturing the next generation of freelancers, CMSME entrepreneurs, and startup founders.  The "One Family, One SEED" initiative is a key part of this strategy, aiming to provide Smart Employment and Entrepreneurship Development (SEED)-based facilities to at least one member of every family by 2041. This initiative is designed to cultivate a robust culture of entrepreneurship across the country. Additionally, the government is running the "Her Power Project: Empowerment of Women with the Help of Technology," which provides IT training to 25,125 women across 130 upazilas in 44 districts. After completing the five-month training program, each participant receives a one-month mentorship and a laptop. Building a “Smart Bangladesh”: Digital skills and IDs for all by 2041 The government is actively supporting young entrepreneurs through the Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy (IDEA) project, offering training and financial assistance. As part of decentralizing the innovation ecosystem, the Smart Bangladesh Launchpad is being established as a venture studio to foster new business ventures and startups. To further support startups, the government has established Startup Bangladesh Limited Company, a venture capital firm that invests in startups at both the seed and growth stages and engages in policy formulation at the national level. Under the Mission Government Brain (G-Brain), several AI-powered initiatives are being developed, including Personalized Learning InvestorGPT, LawGPT, HealthGPT, and ClimateGPT. These initiatives aim to integrate artificial intelligence into various sectors to enhance efficiency and service delivery. To facilitate the transition to smart governance, several initiatives have been launched. These include the Government Email Policy 2018 and the integration of 18,434 government offices, including 47 ministries/departments and 64 District Commissioners' offices, into a unified network. The Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) has also taken steps to implement e-signature technology without the need for dongles, with 273 officers currently using e-signatures. Additionally, the development of the Digital Municipality Service System (DMSS) is underway, providing e-services in nine municipalities and one city corporation with support from KOICA. Empowering Change: Policy Dialogue on disability inclusion in SMART Bangladesh held in city The 'National Municipal Digital Service' project aims to expand these services to 329 municipalities, offering 11 e-services. An ERP system with nine modules is being developed to make government offices paperless, with five modules already in use in the ICT and planning departments. To bridge the gap between the government and the public, the 'Janatar Sarkar' citizen interactive web portal has been launched. This portal currently connects 11 ministries/departments, facilitating transparent and interactive communication between citizens and the government.

The government aims to collect total revenue amounting to 11.2 percent of GDP by the end of the 2025-26 fiscal, according to the Medium Term Macroeconomic Policy Statement (2023-24 to 2025-26) of the Finance Division under the Finance Ministry. It said that Bangladesh has consistently maintained an expansionary fiscal stance keeping a moderate budget deficit—usually around 5 percent of GDP—to foster economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve social outcomes. However, the tax-GDP ratio in Bangladesh is significantly lower than its peers and hence, the government has taken several initiatives to improve revenue collection. Yet, it said, the fast pace of GDP growth has made it challenging to increase the ratio. No tax fair, NBR will organise tax support service to smooth returns submission The measures that have been undertaken are expected to gradually improve revenue collection by increasing both the tax volume and the number of taxpayers. The Statement said that the foremost objectives of the public expenditure policy are to stimulate private investment through building infrastructures and improving the business climate, creating employment opportunities, supporting low-income population through social safety net programs, and reducing poverty through ensuring efficient redistribution of wealth and thus ensuring inclusive development. With the advent of the Covid-19 outbreak, the government started to focus on saving lives while keeping the living standards from falling. To do this, it mentioned, the Government emphasised on retaining jobs, providing income support, keeping supply chains active, reviving the rural economy, and ensuring food supply. Public pension is considered tax-free, notification soon: Finance Ministry For this, the government increased spending and implemented comprehensive recovery programs consisting of twenty-eight stimulus packages. The stimulus efforts worked well and as a result the economy returned to a high growth trajectory fast while other countries continued to struggle. However, the Russia-Ukraine war has again posed considerable risks and to mitigate the risks the Government has been pursuing a policy to rationalise public expenditure to stimulate economic growth by inducing domestic productivity growth. While managing the economy to maximise welfare and development, the government is expected to maintain a budget deficit of around 5 percent of GDP over the medium term. Historically, the size of public expenditure has been low relative to GDP in Bangladesh because of various limitations in the process of revenue collection and budget implementation. Land Development Tax Bill 2023 passed in JS To improve the situation, the government has undertaken certain strategies to increase public expenditure. The target of increasing public expenditure has been set to around 16.2 percent of GDP in FY 2025-26. Moreover, the government is pursuing the Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms process to achieve this target. To improve overall public service delivery, financial control of budget allocations, real-time monitoring of budget execution, and integration of recurrent and capital spending, implementation of the PFM Action Plan (2018-23) is ongoing, and revised PFM Reform Action Plan (2024-2028) has recently been formulated. Under the PFM reforms, pension automation and E-challan automation systems have been introduced with the help of iBAS++ software. This system continues to play a significant role in simplifying the budget management process. At the same time, all beneficiary programs are being brought under the Government to Person (G2P) payment system with the help of the iBAS++ software, which brings greater transparency in government expenditure management. In addition, all government allocations from government institutions as well as all semi-government, autonomous, and state-owned enterprises, are being brought under the Treasury Single Account (TSA) through the iBAS++ system in the medium term. How to Deactivate TIN in Bangladesh: A Comprehensive Guide

The government of Bangladesh has projected to improve the ratio of revenue to GDP to 10.6 percent in the mid-term (by 2024-25 fiscal), even though the revenue sectors are suffering a lot due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine War. The ratio of revenue to GDP expresses total government revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product. The vast majority of government revenue comes in the form of tax collection. Consequently it is also sometimes known as the tax-GDP ratio. Other smaller revenue streams include things like bonded warehouses, a customs-controlled warehouse for the retention of imported goods until the duty owed on them is paid. According to an official document, the revenue-GDP ratio for the running 2022-23 fiscal has been estimated at 9.7 percent, rising to 10.4 percent in the 2023-24 fiscal. Read more: IMF suggests updating GDP report every 3 months It said that in preparing fiscal policy, the government has been maintaining an expansionary fiscal stance by keeping the budget deficit at a moderate level. Moreover, the government has taken up many reform initiatives to improve the revenue-GDP ratio which is low compared to the neighbouring countries. Due to the rebasing of GDP to the 2015-16 fiscal, the ratio has dropped even further. Although revenue-GDP ratio has been growing slowly due to high GDP growth, revenue growth has been on a positive trend. The official document of the Finance Ministry said that several reform initiatives have been taken by the government to reinforce domestic resource mobilisation as well as to improve the revenue-GDP ratio. It is envisaged that positive impacts of ongoing and future reforms will ensure significantly higher revenue and hence, total revenue is projected to grow to 10.6 percent of GDP in the fiscal 2024-25. Read more: Bangladesh has one of the lowest debt-to-GDP ratios: Finance Minister tells ADB In south Asia Bangladesh has the lowest tax-GDP ratio. A 2016 World Bank report said that the South Asian tax -GDP ratio is 19.1 percent in Nepal, 16 percent in Bhutan, 12 percent in India, 9.9 percent in Afghanistan, 9.1 percent in the Maldive while in Bangladesh it is 8.8 percent. In 2017 Bangladesh's position in tax-GDP ratio slid to 7.6. According to available data from World Economic Outlook of October 2019 issue, the revenue GDP ratio of the country is 9.9 percent on average since 2015-2019 while it is 19.8 percent for India, 23.9 for Nepal, 14.7 for Pakistan, 13.5 for Sri Lanka, 25.6 for developing countries and 35.9 for developed countries. Due to COVID-19, the revenue collection declined while pressure mounted on the budget as the government made high expenditure to face the adverse impact of the economic situation. The Russia-Ukraine war just added to the woes for the revenue collection authorities as the economic conditions across the globe are suffering heavily. Read More: Without reforms, Bangladesh’s GDP could fall below 4% by 2035: World Bank study The document stated that of the 10.6 percent of the revenue GDP ratio in 2024-25 fiscal 9.0 percent will come from National Board of Revenue (NBR), 0.5 percent will be from non-NBR sources while 1.1 percent will be from non-tax sources. The target for the revenue GDP ratio for 2023-24 fiscal has been estimated at 10.4 percent where 8.8 percent will be from National Board of Revenue (NBR), 0.5 percent will be from non-NBR sources while 1.1 percent will be from non-tax sources. In the running 2022-23 fiscal the government is projected to get 8.3 percent from National Board of Revenue (NBR), 0.4 percent from non-NBR sources while 1 percent from non-tax sources. In the previous 2021-22 fiscal, the government had projected to boost the revenue GDP ratio to 11.3 percent with 9.5 percent from National Board of Revenue (NBR), 0.5 percent from non-NBR source while 1.2 percent from non-tax sources. Read More: Bangladesh’s GDP likely to grow by 6.6% in FY 2023: ADB But in the revised estimation, it lowered down the ratio to 9.8 percent where 8.3 percent was from the NBR, 0.4 percent was from non-NBR sources and 1.1 percent from non-tax sources. The COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war was the main cause of lowering down the ratio. The document said that the government has taken various reform activities to improve the overall revenue collection. It mentioned that an automated system has been introduced for VAT and income tax collection along with bonded warehouses. Read more: Focus on extending tax net to enhance Tax-GDP ratio: ICAB The document hoped that apart from reforms programmes for modernisation of the tax administration, expansion of the tax net, developments in tax compliance and law amendment, and simplification of the tax system in Bangladesh would create significant positive impact on revenue collection in the future.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) on Saturday in a budget reaction said more initiatives are required to extend the tax net for increasing tax-GDP ratio in the country. The ICAB and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) can work together to verify company documents on income tax return issues which will help the government to achieve the fiscal revenue collection target, ICAB leaders said. The ICAB said this in a press conference for a formal reaction on the proposed budget, held at CA Building at Karwan Bazar in the capital. Also read: Budget: Dr Atiur for reconsidering some tax proposals Md. Shahadat Hossain FCA, president ICAB, Md. Humayun Kabir FCA, ex-president, ICAB, and Shubhasish Bose, CEO of ICAB, spoke at the function. The ICAB thanked Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal for receiving almost all proposals of the institution on supplementary duty, tax and VAT related issues. Reduction of the ratio of source tax and its field, tax reduction for specific companies in special rate are appreciated in the proposed budget. Separate policy and regulation for start-up business will attract the generation to start innovative business, said ICAB. The ICAB leaders also said changing revenue policy for some sectors will encourage export variation, which is needed to increase export volume of Bangladesh. “Input Tax Credit on Business Services Proposal to reduce fines from 100 percent to 50 percent and maximum 100 percent, to perform operations electronically in a bonded warehouse - These topics are up-to-date and business friendly,” said ICAB in the budget reaction. Also read: Budget FY23: Laundered money to be legalized by 7-15 pc tax Md. Shahadat Hossain FCA, president ICAB, Md. Humayun Kabir FCA, ex-president, ICAB, Shubhasish Bose, CEO of ICAB, spoke at the function. NKA Mobin FCA, Sabbir Ahmed FCA, Md, Abdul Kader Joarddar FCA, Snehasish Barua FCA, Mahbub Ahmed Siddique FCA, among others, present in the press conference.

The National Board of Revenue has asked its offices to intensify their drive to attain this fiscal year’s revenue collection target overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic so the tax-GDP ratio improves to double-digit. It also asked customs and taxes appellate tribunals to clear the pending cases in due time. These directives have been given recently at a coordination meeting of the finance ministry’s Internal Resources Division (IRD). Read BGMEA seeks customs, VAT, income tax-related support from NBR Speaking at the meeting NBR chairman and IRD secretary Abu Hena Md. Rahmatul Muneem asked all NBR officials to remain sincere and active to achieve the revenue collection set at Tk 330,078 crore during fiscal 2021-22. He asked the NBR members, customs commissioners and tax commissioners to intensify proper monitoring system. The NBR chairman directed the research and statistics division director general to submit updated revenue collection information in every month’s coordination meeting. Also read: NBR faces uphill task in achieving VAT collection target Of the total target the VAT wing will contribute the lion share with Tk 127,745 crore which is 11 percent higher than the revised target of the last fiscal. 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 in the last fiscal. The revenue collection from import duty will be Tk 37, 907 crore, Tk 54,465 crore from from Supplementary Duty, Tk 56 from export duty, Tk 3825 from Excise Duty while Tk 1050 crore from other taxes and duties. Read NBR to prioritize local industries in 2021-22 budget, says its chairman In the last fiscal (2020-21) the revised revenue target was Tk 301,000 crore while it was set Tk 330,000 in the main budget. But the NBR could not attain the revised target mainly due to the ongoing pandemic that saw the government to impose lockdowns affecting the economy. According to the available data the revenue collection in 2020-21 fiscal was Tk 41,000 crore less than the revised target while Tk 70,000 from the original target. Read NBR looking to procure non-intrusive inspection systems for export-import items The collection was Tk 259,900 crore although the growth was 19 percent.

Speakers at a webinar Tuesday stressed the need for framing a COVID-19 pandemic focused budget for the next fiscal year giving the highest priority to the health sector to mitigate the health-related risks alongside focusing on sound macroeconomic management, widening social safety nets, raising the tax-GDP ratio and generating more employments. They also emphasised strengthening the ongoing vaccination programme, carrying on necessary tax reforms as well as reducing the corporate tax rates, ensuring proper budget implementation and quality spending of development projects, addressing the livelihood issues in the context of pandemic, prioritising the CMSMEs and bringing the education sector under the purview of the stimulus packages. The recommendations came up with at a webinar on ‘Macroeconomy: Expectations from National Budget 2021-22’ jointly organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) and the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF). The Economic Affairs Adviser to Prime Minister Dr Mashiur Rahman agreed with the suggestions to enhance budgetary allocation on the health sector and thus strengthen the ongoing vaccination campaign. Stressing the need for carrying out necessary reforms in the financial sector and in the revenue sector, he said reforms in the capital market and bond market is also necessary to attract the large scale investors. Mashiur noted that if the lion’s share of the deficit financing could be made available from the foreign sources then its impact on the domestic sector would not be that much. He also stressed the need for boosting confidence among the businesses and investors, attracting more FDI, ensuring skills development and sound basic education up to the secondary level. Distinguished Fellow of CPD Prof Dr Mustafizur Rahman emphasised on generating more employments, giving relief to the import substitute industries through taxation, revisiting the import regulations, enhancing quality expenditure, and ensuring necessary reforms. He was also critical about the scope for whitening black money in the budget saying it is an injustice to the honest taxpayers. Executive Director of PRI Dr Ahsan H Mansur proposed allocating Tk 15,000 crore for vaccination in the next budget and that fund should be made available from day one. For the new poor being created from the impacts of the pandemic, he said only cash support is not enough for them, rather some permanent measures should be awarded. The renowned economist also suggested addressing the livelihood issues due to the pandemic, prioritising the SMEs in the stimulus packages, focusing more on expenditure and said the budget deficit could be stretched from 7 to 8 percent. Executive Director of SANEM Dr Selim Raihan called for expanding economic operations and not having an obsessed mindset on growth, rolling out social safety net schemes for the urban poor, boosting business confidence through necessary measures, increasing budget implementation and ensuring some visible reforms. Former adviser to the caretaker government Rasheda K Chowdhury said that the next budget should be a pandemic-focused one while the education sector should be brought under the stimulus package as the losses to this sector is huge and it is invisible. "Education sector must not be less prioritised," she said. Chairman of PEB Dr M Masrur Reaz suggested for bringing around 50 percent of the country's population under the vaccination programme in the next one year, otherwise, the revival initiatives and recovery would be much tougher. He also proposed allocating one percent of GDP as social safety net for the poor as well as awarding another stimulus for the SMEs, especially for the small and micro-entrepreneurs. Senior research fellow of BIDS Dr Nazneen Ahmed strongly advocated for reducing the corporate tax rate, prioritising those development projects which are nearing completion, keeping budgetary allocation on creating health awareness as well as on health disaster management, making cheaper the internet facilities and also making available the gadgets for the poor students. BGMEA President Faruque Hassan urged the government to provide policy support to the affected industries till the crisis ends so that those could make a turnaround. He also demanded the government to keep the tax rates stable for 10 years or at least for five years for turnaround of the Industries. Chairman of Trustee Board of BUILD Abul Kasem Khan suggested for the continuation of the stimulus packages in the next budget as well as rationalizing taxation measures and improving the investment climate. MCCI President Barrister Nihad Kabir put utmost priority on ensuring qualitative spending of development projects through real-time basis monitoring and evaluation by the IMED, raising the tax-GDP ratio, giving policy support to CMSMEs, and also to check the trend of dodging tax and laundering of money abroad. DCCI President Rizwan Rahman suggested reducing the corporate tax rate progressively by 2.5 percent in the next three years and thus brings it at 25 percent to facilitate the businesses. Coming down heavily on the scope for whitening undisclosed money, he said that the business community would not accept such provision for whitening the money coming from 'burglary'. "Otherwise, the honest businesses will not feel encouraged to pay tax from the next year," he added. BASIS President Syed Almas Kabir suggested keeping the digital transaction out of the purview of VAT for the next 3 to 5 years to facilitate online transaction and wider materialisation of the 'Digital Bangladesh' initiative. ICAB President Mahmudul Hasan Khusru said the tax net is not widening that is why honest and existing taxpayers are overburdened with incremental tax recovery target. “While we would be graduating as developing country, our preferential benefits would be eroded, we’ve to compete with other developing countries. Hence, human resource development is paramount important, capacity building of our institutions and adoption of advanced technologies and professional education are also important to emphasise in the budgetary allocation,” he added. FICCI President Rupali Haque Chowdhury, former President of AmCham AKM Aftabul Islam, chief news editor of the Daily Prothom Alo Shawkat Hossain Masum, ICAB vice presidents Sidhartha Barua, Md Abdul Kader Joaddar and council member of ICAB Mohammad Forkan Uddin spoke at the webinar. Former ICAB president Md Humayun Kabir moderated the function while its CEO Shubhashish Bose spoke. ERF President Sharmin Rinvy made the opening remarks while its general secretary SM Rashidul Islam gave the vote of thanks and ICAB Vice President Maria Howlader gave the closing remarks.

Prime Minister's Private Industry and Investment Adviser Salman Fazlur Rahman on Saturday said the government is working on policy reforms, aiming to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI).

The government has opted to clamp down on the Value Added Tax (VAT), specially from the 40 lakh small and medium enterprises, for increasing its revenue collection in the coming days.