Salehuddin asks NBR not to collect taxes forcefully

Adviser to the interim government on the Ministries of Finance and Commerce Salehuddin Ahmed today (10 September) directed the National Board of Revenue (NBR) not to collect taxes forcefully from the taxpayers.

"There should not be any force on any of the existing taxpayers. All are not equal, every person cannot pay taxes, but that does not mean you will collect tax forcefully," he said while speaking at 'meet the press' at the NBR Bhaban in the capital's Agargaon area on the occasion of introducing online income tax return submission this afternoon.

He also laid emphasis on bringing all eligible persons under the tax net as many people have the capacity to pay tax. "All eligible individuals have to be put under the tax net. If you bring those people under the tax net, it would be better," he said.

The adviser said it is a tough job to provide government services without paying proper taxes.

Salehuddin also noted that taxpayers feel easy while not seeing the face of any tax official. "...And you know the various meanings of seeing the face of tax officials."

He put emphasis on depositing the taxes in the national exchequer without any leakage. "From now on we will avoid any leakage in tax payment and for that purpose, we have introduced the online tax payment system," he said.

The finance adviser said the government cannot run the country only through borrowing from savings certificates and taking loans from abroad.

Explaining the benefits of online return submission, Dr Salehuddin hoped that this year some 15 lakhs individual taxpayers would submit their income tax returns through online system.

NBR Chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan said that this year the online income tax return submission started on September 9, but from the next fiscal it will start from July 1, the first day of the fiscal year.

"We are preparing towards that. Our main goal is to introduce a taxpayer-friendly culture, especially reducing the compliance cost," he added.

Rahman said that the NBR will gradually incorporate all related sectors in this system to make the income tax return submission more hassle free.

"We want to go for comprehensive automation," he said.

In the 2021-22 fiscal year, the income tax submission through online was 61,000, in 2022-23 it was 244,000 while in 2023-24 it was 526,000. "This year we hope that the lion's share of the individual tax return submission will be done through online," he added.

The Revenue Board Chairman said that from Thursday a call centre will be introduced from 9am to 5pm to help the taxpayers.

"Although we have been able to make a little progress so far, but our dream is very big," he added.