e-filing of tax returns possible from next July

From next fiscal year, taxpayers will be able to proactively start submitting their tax returns from July 1 even though this year the National Board of Revenue (NBR) started accepting it online a bit late, that is from September 9.
NBR Chairman Abdur Rahman Khan informed this to journalists at a press briefing at NBR headquarters in Dhaka’s Agargaon yesterday followed by a meeting with the finance adviser.
The tax administration has taken the initiative to facilitate digital submissions of income tax, wealth statement and other tax by individual taxpayers as well as to reduce the need for taxpayers to meet tax officials in person.
Khan said the NBR had initially launched an online return submission portal in 2016 but due to some errors, the NBR relaunched it in 2021.
“The latest journey (2021) was not smooth as there was also fear and doubt. Now, we are fully ready to accommodate nearly one crore taxpayers from this fiscal year,” said the NBR chairman.
Last fiscal year, around 5 lakh taxpayers submitted their returns online and nearly 38 lakh submitted manually, according to the NBR.
Currently, Bangladesh has 1.4 crore people with taxpayer identification numbers (TINs).
“Bangladesh is far away from the global standard. We have just started (making progress) now in full swing. I hope the online return number will increase to 15 lakh by this fiscal year,” said Khan.
At the meeting, Finance and Commerce Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed said the NBR should focus on expanding the tax net and improving the service quality.
“The NBR shouldn’t forcibly collect tax from the taxpayer. Rather, it should expand the tax net to increase the revenue collection,” he said.
Praising the online tax system, Ahmed said it would definitely reduce the need for taxpayers to meet tax officials in person.
“When the tax official will no longer see the taxpayer’s face, it will bring transparency,” he said.
The interim government has already started to initiate reforms in many sectors and it would be gradually brought about at the NBR, he said.