Govt employees in Dhaka, N'ganj, Gazipur cities must submit returns online 

From now on, all government employees in the four city corporations—Dhaka North, Dhaka South, Narayanganj, and Gazipur—must submit their tax returns online. 

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) issued this order today (22 October), mandating online submission of tax returns for government employees.

Additionally, it has been made mandatory for the employees of all banks and all mobile telecom service providers to submit their tax returns online.

The mandate extends to major companies, including Unilever Bangladesh Limited, British American Tobacco Bangladesh Limited, Marico Bangladesh Limited, Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited, Bata Shoe Company (Bangladesh) Limited, and Nestlé Bangladesh PLC.

Tax returns can be submitted online at www.etaxnbr.gov.bd. 

Although online tax return submission has been a topic of discussion for the past few years, the response has been limited, partly due to the NBR's lack of preparation. Despite a significant rollout last year, only about 10% of tax returns were submitted online.

However, since Abdur Rahman Khan took over as NBR chairman two months ago, there has been a renewed focus on encouraging online submissions. To support this initiative, a help desk was launched at the Revenue Bhavan in Agargaon, Dhaka, about a month ago.

According to a senior NBR official speaking to The Business Standard, this new requirement is expected to bring around 10 lakh new taxpayers into the online submission system. 

Currently, the country has over 1 crore Tax Identification Number (TIN) holders, of which nearly 40 lakh submitted tax returns last year.