The National Income Tax Fair, arranged for the first time in the country, got a huge response from the tax payers on the first day yesterday.
But the people who came in the fair to submit their income tax returns and obtain tax identification number (TIN) have to undergo sufferings standing in long queues due to shortage of booths.
A total of 2,156 people submitted their income tax returns yesterday and 553 of them collected TIN certificates that fetched Tk 4 crore to the government exchequer.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR), a mother organisation of tax collection, organised the fair for five days at the Diploma Engineers` Institution in the city yesterday with a view to promoting as well as increasing the number of tax payers.
A total of nine stalls out of 18 were set up for submitting income tax returns and only 4 stalls for helping people to fill up the return forms.
Finance Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr Moshiur Rahman inaugurated the fair in the morning where NBR chairman Dr Nasir Uddin was present.
On the first day of the fair, a huge number of people gathered in all the booths. Though the officials in the booths received return forms within a short span of time, the tax payers have to wait for two to three hours in the long queues to collect return forms and collecting TIN certificates.
Expressing anger, Habibur Rahman who came to the fair for collecting TIN certificate said he waited for almost two hours but he could not reach the booth.
Habib told reporter that how they would encourage people to give tax if the situation was like this.
Admitting the situation, officials in the booths said that they had no previous experience in this regard.
President of the fair and commissioner of Tax zone-1 Kader Sarkar said they got huge response beyond their expectation. That’s why they have to fall in problem to maintain the crowd.
The target of the fair is to collect one lakh new tax payers, he added.
Besides, fairs of the similar nature also began in the port city Chittagong yesterday where 1,479 people submitted their return forms worth Tk 80 lakh. About 73 people received TIN certificates.
