Harassment, underhand dealings hurting tax revenue, businesses tell NBR

Businessmen have put forward allegations of harassment at the field level amid discussions on the multifaceted steps taken by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to collect revenue.

They have also pointed out that the government is losing a large amount of tax revenue due to illegal transactions between businessmen and officials.

The business leaders raised the issues in front of the NBR chairman in the presence of a large number of field level officials at a seminar at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital on Sunday.

At the same time, the NBR raised the issue of a lack of capacity to collect the expected amount of revenue as well as a lack of coordination among various departments of the revenue board.

Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu, senior vice president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), said, "We receive reports of alarming situations like seizure of documents, harassment, and demands or notices. They are not conducive to business."

"Of course, we are not in favour of deliberate evasion," he said, highlighting the fact that huge sums of money did not reach the government coffers as a result of illegal transactions.

Bringing an example, he said, "We came to know that a businessman in a district was fined Tk4 crore. But the case was settled through underhand dealings with the officials."

"Here the officers and businessmen benefited, and any revenue reached the government exchequer," he said, urging the authorities to activate the VAT intelligence wing of the NBR to prevent such irregularities.

The NBR organised the seminar as part of the inauguration of its own building by the prime minister and a two-day revenue conference.

A large number of business representatives and NBR officials attended the seminar titled "Role of VAT in National Development: Present and Future".

At that time, Naser Ezaz Bijoy, president of the Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce and Industry, urged the NBR to take product assessment into consideration when imposing import taxes when prices decrease after an increase in the international market.

"Now the commodity prices are coming down in the international market. As a result, assessing the last transaction when the price was higher will affect consumers," he added.

Besides, he urged the NBR to implement the Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD) system in business establishments to become cashless.

"As long as the cash transaction is available, the EFD will not be effective. It has to be made cashless within a certain period of time," he added.