But revenue collection drops
Revenue collection sharply dropped on the third day of the weeklong income tax fair across the country on Thursday though record number of taxpayers and potential taxpayers visited the fair amid nationwide hartal called by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
On the day, a total of 98,630 people received different services at the fair across the country while the National Board of Revenue received around Tk 161.53 crore from 15,314 taxpayers as they submitted their income tax returns, according to the NBR statistics.
On Wednesday, the NBR received around Tk 475.40 crore in income tax from the fair.
Officials of the revenue board said that a record number of people visited the fair venues including Officers Club premises, the fair venue for Dhaka, and received different services on the day taking the advantage of less traffic jam in cities.
Income tax collection, however, decreased on the day as most probably the big taxpayers did not submit their income tax returns and deposit the tax fearing possible risks during hartal, they said.
The fair, weeklong in divisional headquarters and four-day in districts level, started on Tuesday and till Thursday the revenue board received overwhelming response from the taxpayers.
On the third day, 3,460 people enlisted themselves as new taxpayers through receiving online taxpayer identification number while 3,142 existing taxpayers re-registered e-TINs.
Till Thursday, a total of 2,41,869 people received different services at the fair venues across the country and the NBR got around Tk 773.87 crore in income tax as 45,358 taxpayers submitted income tax returns, according to the NBR data.
In the first three days, 7,674 people took e-TINs while 5,279 taxpayers replaced their existing TINs with e-TINs, the data showed.
In the Dhaka venue, people overcrowded at the e-TIN service providing booths and help desks where general information on return filing and other issues related to tax are provided.
A NBR official said that till now they did not face any problems including technical ones as they took necessary preparations taking lessons from the last year’s fair where they experienced some technical glitches.
He said that people mostly were visiting the e-TIN booths as the budget for the fiscal year 2014 made e-TIN mandatory for filing income tax returns.
Taxpayers also expressed their satisfaction over the arrangement for providing services, he said.
The four-day tax fair at different districts including Shunamganj, Rajbari, Narshingdi, Manikganj, Pirojpur, Patuakhali, Natore, Pabna, Jaypurhat, Gaibandha, Thakurgaon, Panchagargh, Kushtia, Meherpur, Chuadanga, and Bagerhat began on Thursday.
At the fair venues, there are e-TIN registration booths, re-registration booths, e-payment booths, income tax return filing booths, help and inquiry desks to facilitate taxpayers in receiving services.
The fair remains open for the visitors from 10:00am to 5:00pm every day.
The fair services, however, will remain suspended today for one hour from 12.45pm due to the Jumma prayer, NBR officials said.
-With New Age input
