Tax payment must to cut dependence on aid: NBR chief

Tax payment must to cut dependence
on aid: NBR chief
Our Correspondent . Barisal

National Board of Revenue chairman Muhammad Abdul Majid on Sunday urged all eligible persons and organisations to pay taxes regularly to reduce the country’s aid dependence and burden of foreign loan.
‘We took foreign aids and loans on simple interest for reconstruction of the war-ravaged Bangladesh, but our failure to repay the loans on time have now become a huge burden for the nation,’ he said while exchanging views with taxpayers, businessmen and leaders of financial institutions and associations at Barisal Circuit House.
Now is the time to end dependence on external resources, loans and foreign aids and the only way for it is to increase the revenue earning from internal sources, he added.
Regular payment of income and other taxes will create a strong bond between the state and citizens and it will reduce the country’s dependence on foreign aid and loan, he observed.
The NBR in a survey has found that more than 15 million people are eligible for paying taxes, but less than 20 per cent of them are paying those, Majid said.
‘Despite simplifying the system and formalities of assessment and payment and reducing the rate, only 93,000 people this year submitted income tax returns,’ he said and warned that those who were trying to evade taxes would not be successful as income tax clearance would be needed for every big purchase.
He appreciated the rise in number of taxpayers in
the southern region even after the last year’s deadly cyclone Sidr.
Commissioner of Khulna customs and VAT region Nurul Islam chaired the session, attended, among others, by Barisal Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Sheikh Abdur Rahim, former BCCI vice-president Abdur Razzak, payer of the highest income tax in Barisal division Maniruzaman Talukdar, the highest value-added tax payer of the division Abdur Rob Shahin, Lorence Gomez of Barguna Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College principal Zahid Hossain.