Bangladesh’s Digital Land (Development) Tax system, under Ministry of Land, has been chosen as one of the five champion projects of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2022 contest.
The digital land tax system was chosen for category seven in the contest, named ‘ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life - E-government’.
In the contest, four or five projects/initiatives in each of the 18 categories have been declared ‘Champions’.
Out of these 18 categories of ‘Champion’ projects/initiatives, one best project/initiative in each category will be announced as the final winner of the WSIS Awards 2022 in the last week of May.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the nationwide online land development tax payment system on September 8, 2021, according to a press release issued on Sunday.
On January 5, Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury inaugurated Land Development Taxes Payment by calling 16122.
The people of Bangladesh largely depend on land for their livelihood, social norms, and economic activities. But unfortunately, most of the people here have to go to the union land offices, which cause great difficulties in paying land tax.
Also, they are often accused of being harassed. Because of these reasons, many people do not show interest in paying land tax on time. As a result, the government’s revenue is not being earned as desired.
The Ministry of Land has digitised the land tax payment system to ease their suffering and harassment and to radically change their attitude towards land tax payment in this milieu. Landowners from anywhere in the world can now pay land tax online.
This system has reduced the time, cost, and visit of the citizens. People are gradually becoming more accustomed to the new system, which has increased transparency and reduced their inconvenience.
Furthermore, automatically collected land tax has increased drastically, providing huge revenue for government budgeting.
In addition, the system of providing immediate digital receipt after payment of land taxes is also in process. Already 94 per cent of the holding entries have been completed. It is expected that 100 per cent of the landowners will come under the online land development tax system soon.
WSIS Prizes are an initiative focused on promoting the exchange of optimal practices on a global scale to strengthen the Information Society and fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The contest was developed in response to requests from the WSIS stakeholders to create an effective mechanism to evaluate projects and activities that leverage the power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to advance sustainable development.
WSIS summit is held under the auspices of the United Nations and organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and other relevant organisations.
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