The National Board of Revenue exceeded its revenue collection target by Tk 175.31 crore as it collected a record Tk 1,675.31 crore in income tax against its target of Tk 1,500 crore from the countrywide weeklong income tax fair that ended on Monday, according to NBR data.
Income tax collection also increased by almost 50 per cent compared with that of the last year when the NBR got Tk 1,117 crore in income tax from the fair organised by the revenue board.
The revenue board has also set a record in providing services and receiving income tax returns at the fair although many taxpayers who came on the fair venues at late hour had to go back without filing returns, officials said.
The fair ended at 5:00pm but all the visitors who entered the fair venues before the concluding time got the service even after the scheduled time, they said.
Around 6.50 lakh people received services from the tax officials on different venues of the fair at divisional headquarters and district headquarters, the data showed.
Like previous years, the fair venues across the country, including Officers Club in Dhaka, on Monday overcrowded with visitors as more than one lakh people took services related to income tax on the last day.
Many taxpayers were seen leaving without filing returns as they could not complete all procedures including tax calculation and tax payment.
According to the NBR data, the revenue board provided 6,49,185 people with the services in seven days of this year’s fair which is 27.25 per cent higher than the previous year.
In 2013, the NBR provided 5.10 lakh people with the services.
As many as 1,49,309 people also submitted their income tax returns at the fair while the revenue board issued online taxpayer identification numbers (e-TIN) to 15,907 people.
Another 10,838 taxpayers replaced their existing manual TINs with e-TINs, the data showed.
On Monday, the revenue board collected Tk 359.83 crore in income tax from 34,539 taxpayers as they submitted their returns at the fair.
As many as 3,066 people registered with the NBR as new taxpayers by receiving new e-TINs while another 1,640 existing taxpayers upgraded their manual TINs with e-TINs on the day.
The revenue board has been organising such fair since 2010 to create awareness among people on the necessity of paying tax.
The number of people at the fair has been rising every year for the past few years as taxpayers, who often face harassment at NBR’s field offices in submitting tax, get one stop services on the fair venues without much hassle.
The revenue board on Sunday organised a closing ceremony of the fair at Officers Club in Dhaka.
State minister for finance and planning MA Mannan attended the programme as chief guest at the ceremony presided over by NBR member Md Bashir Uddin Ahmed.
The NBR arranged tax fair in Dhaka and Chittagong in 2010 for the first time in the country in which 60,512 people took services related to income tax.
In 2010, it collected Tk 113 crore in income tax as 52,544 people submitted income tax returns in the fair.
In 2011, the NBR collected Tk 414.39 crore in income tax from the fair arranged at seven divisional cities where 62,272 people submitted their income tax returns and 75,120 people received services.
In 2012, the revenue board collected Tk 839 crore in income tax, received 97,867 returns and provided 3.46 lakh people with the services at the fair held at seven divisional headquarters and 11 district towns.
-With New Age input
