Businesses have to pay bribes on top of bribes: BKMEA executive president

Businesses in the country have to pay bribes to tax officials due to paying bribes to various institutions, said Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, executive president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA). 

Speaking at a dialogue today (17 November) organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in Dhaka, he said, "We have to pay Tk20-30 lakh in bribes per year. As there is usually no evidence of such expenditure, tax officials want us to pay fines or give them bribes."

Speaking to The Business Standard after the event, he said, "There is no evidence that we pay bribes to various institutions. Tax officials want to disallow those expenses at the time of tax return submission. If disallowed, we have to pay more than 30% of the amount in taxes and fines. To avoid this additional cost, bribes are paid to tax officials."

Ehsan further said, "Corruption is our biggest problem, we need to give the utmost importance to controlling…It is the mother of all problems."

Calling for reforms in the National Board of Revenue (NBR), he said, "If it can be reformed accordingly, it is possible to reduce corruption even by half."