The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has taken a tougher move to increase its collection from the Income Tax Wing by expanding its net and realising outstanding taxes, as in the first eight months of the current fiscal it collected just over 50 per cent of its target for the fiscal.
The revenue collection target from the Income Tax Wing for 2021-22 fiscal is Tk 1.04 trillion. But, according to available data from the NBR, till February of this year, the wing has been able to collect only Tk 528.54 billion. It means the rest, an almost equal amount of Tk 510.90 billion, has to be collected in just four months.
In February, the eighth month of the fiscal, the NBR collected Tk 64.47 billion, almost 10 per cent more than the corresponding month in 2021, when it collected Tk 58.82 billion.
The collection in the first eight months of the current fiscal is 13.3 per cent higher than the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
According to the NBR sources, the board has directed the tax commissioners to bring all eligible persons and organisations under the tax net and to take initiatives to remove the phobia regarding hassle in tax payment.
As per a UNB report, the board also asked to intensify the tax survey and activate the inactive TIN numbers as submitting income tax returns has been made mandatory for every TIN holder from the current fiscal.
The Income Tax Wing of the NBR has already given necessary directives to the field offices in these regards.
As a part of the internal survey, the field level officials are collecting possible taxpayers information from city corporations, Rajuk and similar organisations, and sub-registrar offices. This is popularly called 'secondary data'. Secondary data refers to the information of the individuals that are already kept in any organisations.
The NBR has also started to collect information about the potential taxpayers at the upazila level through secondary data gathering, otherwise known as internal survey.
For example, a file of 'X' company mentions that it has 450 employees. The concerned official can ask for the names of the 450 employees and their TIN numbers.
With this little move, the NBR can find out the eligible taxpayers' names and bring them under the tax net, if they are not already.
"This is called an internal survey," a senior NBR official explained.
In this connection, he said that at first the NBR is taking information about the trade licences that have been issued by the city corporations and municipalities.
Later, TIN will be issued in their names to bring them under tax net and collect revenue from them.
Besides, he mentioned that the NBR is taking information on foreigners from Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), vehicle owners from the BRTA, and land buying and selling information from the sub-registry offices, power distribution offices and service oriented offices.
Information about the flat and house owners is also being taken from the National Housing Authority, the NBR official said.
All these efforts would help NBR identify the eligible taxpayers who are still staying out of the tax net.
"We hope that by this we will be able to net the affluent section of society who are evading tax," he added.
According to the NBR sources, the NBR officials generally collect information of the potential taxpayers by door-to-door survey.
A senior official of the NBR said that field officials have been asked to conduct their survey maintaining health safety issues.
The total revenue target for the NBR for fiscal FY22 has been set at Tk 3.30 trillion.
Of the total target, the VAT wing will contribute the lion's share with Tk 1.28 billion.
The target for Income Tax and Tax on Profit has been set Tk 1.05 trillion. The Income Tax Wing will contribute Tk 1.04 trillion.
The revenue collection from import duty will be Tk 378.07 billion, Tk 552.25 billion from Supplementary Duty, Tk 554.5 million from export duty, Tk 36.86 billion from Excise Duty, Tk 15.30 billion from travel tac while Tk 10.50 billion from other taxes and duties.