Income Tax Fair
NBR bags Tk 475cr on 2nd day amid late-hour rush
The National Board of Revenue collected Tk 475.39 crore in income tax on Wednesday, the second day of the weeklong tax fair across the country, with 31,044 people submitting their tax returns on the day. NBR officials said although the turnout was low in the morning session but paced up in the later half of the day. They said in the morning people were in fear of unrest over the appeal verdict of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee on war crimes charges.
According to the NBR data, a total of 92,116 taxpayers took services from the fair across the country while 2,383 people took new electronic taxpayer identification number and 1,141 people re-registered their TINs on the second day of the fair.
In the first two days of the fair the NBR collected Tk 612.34 crore in income tax from the fair when 44,495 people submitted their returns.
Taxpayers, however, said that because of the crowd in the second half of the day the service delivery at the fair became sluggish.
Md Momin Mollah, a service holder at a private company, told New Age that the overall service was satisfactory but the process of return submission was slow.
‘The NBR should set up some more booths as the people are now more aware of tax return filing,’ he said.
Another taxpayer Alamgir Hossain said that the service of the tax officials was satisfactory at the fair.
‘Usually, you have to face a lot of hassles in paying tax but in the fair I could pay my taxes without any extra trouble,’ he said after filing his returns at the Officer’s Club premises in Dhaka.
He also said that the queue was long and the process was still time consuming despite automation.
NBR officials, however, said that the revenue board might not be able to set up more booths as renovation work was underway on the ground floor of the Officers’ Club.
They said that the tennis court, the first floor of main building and the Khelaghar premises of the venue were available to hire where the NBR set up 44 income tax return filing booths and 20 other booths for help and inquiry desks, emergency health, form distribution and media.
The income tax fair started on Tuesday at the seven divisional headquarters and four-day fair at 57 districts headquarters.
This year the NBR is focusing on assisting the existing taxpayers through e-TIN registration, tax payment, return filing and encouraging new taxpayers to be involved with the process.
The fair remains open for visitors from 10:00am to 5:00pm.
-With New Age input
