Now the tax authority moves to nose out tax-dodgers through crosschecking power-and gas-usage data of individuals and companies by partnering distributors of the two key utilities-after shelving invasive scrutiny of corporate financials.
To this end, sources say, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is first going to join hands with one of the two Dhaka city's electricity distribution companies to access power-consumption data of individuals and companies.
The NBR will tie up with the Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) to get data of more than 1.6 million (16, 15,000) electricity consumers. DPDC's jurisdiction covers Dhaka South City Corporation and a part of adjoining Narayanganj district.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be signed between the NBR and the DPDC on October 27 to kick off the probe.
In the second phase, the NBR will sign MoU with Titas gas-distribution company to access gas consumers' data to gauge out actual taxable incomes based on gas usage.
"From the exchange of data, both taxmen and taxpayers would be benefited," says a senior tax official about the drive that, incidentally, is being undertaken after the government revenue authority's apparent abortive bid for prying into financials of large taxpayers like local corporates and multinational companies for the same purpose-exacting actual amounts of taxes.
Sources said the board early this year had made a move to sign MoU with DPDC but it was delayed due to some procedural complexities.
"Assessment of tax returns on production by the manufacturing companies would no longer be based on assumption of taxmen if data of electricity consumption are available to them," the official adds.
Allegations have it that taxmen exercise their discretionary power to determine the production in manufacturing units that some taxpayers try to show lower to pay less in tax.
"Electricity and gas consumption of manufacturing units and individuals would be monitored to assess and determine taxes on the basis of actual database," the tax official said.
He said database of taxpayers is needed both to reduce discretionary power of taxmen and thwart tax evasion.
It can be assumed what would be power or gas consumption for producing certain amount of products, the official added.
"Our intension is not to create panic among the utility users. We want to assess tax files on the basis of database to reduce harassment of taxpayers," he added.
Taxpayers give a price declaration to the VAT authority with the details of their power consumption, the official notes. And it could be a source of information and could be crosschecked with the shared information of electricity consumers.
The NBR would be able to trace those who remained out of tax-net, termed non-filers, and those who concealed actual information of factory production with the information of power and gas consumption, officials said.
Lack of database is deemed by officials as one of the major reasons for poor tax-GDP ratio in Bangladesh-the lowest in Southeast Asia.
Some 2.5 million individual taxpayers and 30,000 corporate taxpayers submit their tax returns annually to the NBR, out of 75 million TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number) holders.
Former tax member Aminur Rahman, however, is in doubt about success of such initiatives on the factories manufacturing different types of products with different kinds of machinery.
"Power consumption would vary on the basis of nature of products. Also high-tech machinery consumes less power and gas than that of age-old machinery," he says, for an example.
The initiative may see some success in determining actual production of the companies producing same-nature goods, he adds.
Mr Rahman suggests accumulating database before taking any initiative as that might panic people.
Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) Managing Director Bikash Dewan said the entity had signed MoU with Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), the Election Commission (EC) earlier.
"There is no reason to get panicked. We also want to see who have TIN, who haven't," he says.
As per the Income Tax Ordinance 1984, obtaining and continuing power and gas connection need mandatory submission of proof of tax-return slip.
Officials said the NBR would conduct survey to find out new taxpayers from secondary sources. The door-to-door survey remained suspended since March 2020 after COVID hit the country.
