The fourth weeklong income tax fair on Tuesday drew huge number of visitors at the fair venues including at the Officers’ Club in Dhaka for receiving income tax-related services and information from the tax officials. Overcoming the technical glitches that marred the first day of the fair, the National Board of Revenue officials provided uninterrupted services and information to the taxpayers who appeared satisfied.
But typing mistakes in online generated taxpayers’ identification certificates, however, annoyed many taxpayers.
The nationwide income tax fair that began on Monday at the seven divisional headquarters and eight districts experienced severe problems in issuing new taxpayers’ identification numbers online (e-TIN) because of failure in connecting with the database of national identification number of the Election Commission.
From Tuesday, fairs were being held in another 11 districts and the NID server was found functioning and the taxmen issued hundreds of new e-TIN, said a senior NBR official.
The revenue board also took steps to correct typing mistakes in e-TIN certificates instantly, he said, adding that such incidences are happening as the NBR people working at the fair have to work under huge pressure of the crowd.
Taxmen got difficulty in coping with such severe rush, he added.
According to NBR data, a total of 62,832 taxpayers took services from the fair while 14,543 new and old taxpayers took e-TINs on the second day of the fair.
The revenue board collected Tk 101.20 crore in income taxes as a total of 11,649 people submitted their income tax returns.
Abdul Malek, a retired banker, told New Age that he was satisfied with the services provided by the tax officials at the fair.
‘I felt comfort coming here rather than visiting the field office of the NBR as usually taxpayers face hassle there including delay in completing return submission, bribery and other hassles,’ he said.
After re-registering for e-TIN, Ali Ahmed, found typing errors in his name and other information in the certificate.
He went to a booth established for correcting those mistakes and taxmen made the correction within a few minutes.
Kabir Hossain Howlader found four typing mistakes in his certificates.
He said that he provided correct information to the taxmen but they made the mistakes while registering information on online system.
Getting complaints from the taxpayers about the typing mistakes, the NBR on the day established two booths for correcting those mistakes instantly.
Some taxpayers also found their old TINs missing in online system under which every new taxpayer will have to register for 12-digit e-TIN and old TIN holders for replacing their 10-digit TINs with e-TIN.
Anwarul Karim, managing director of Firoza Leather (Pvt) Ltd, said that NBR officials found his TIN invalid in the system though he took his TIN last year.
The revenue board, for the first time, expanded the income tax fair, which was orgnised in 19 districts last year, in all districts in the country in a bid to create awareness among the people on the necessity of paying tax.
On Tuesday, the two-day fair began at 11 district headquarters—Moulvibazar, Narail, Magura, Jhenaidah, Mymensingh, Bhola, Chapainawabganj, Pabna, Dinajpur and Nilphamari.
The fair will remain open for visitors from 10:00am to 6:00pm.
In the first two days, the revenue board collected Tk 133.41 crore in income tax from the fair as 23,074 people submitted their returns.
The taxmen issued a total of 2,835 new e-TINs and replaced 13,916 old TINs with e-TINs.
-With New Age input
