The National Board of Revenue has collected a record Tk 1,117.40 crore in income tax, surpassing its target, from the nationwide income tax fair that ended on Sunday, according to NBR data. The revenue board also set records in providing services to people and receiving income tax returns at the fair although many of the taxpayers faced difficulties because of inadequate arrangements and technical glitches.
Like previous six days, the fair venues across the country including Officers’ Club in Dhaka on Sunday was overcrowded with visitors as more than one lakh people took the services related to tax from the taxmen.
According to the NBR data, the revenue board provided services to 5.10 lakh people and received returns from 1.32 lakh taxpayers while it issued online generated taxpayers’ identification numbers (e-TIN) to 86,693 people in the seven days of this year’s fair.
In this year, the revenue board arranged seven-day fair focusing on providing e-TIN along with creating awareness on the necessity of paying tax among people at seven divisional headquarters, two-day fair at 54 district towns and one-day mobile fair at three hill districts from September 16 to September 22.
In 2012, the revenue board collected Tk 839 crore in income tax, received 97,867 returns and provided services to 3.46 lakh people at the fairs held at seven divisional headquarters and 11 district towns.
This year a total of 12,337 people took newly introduced e-TINs while 74,356 old taxpayers replaced their existing TINs with e-TINs, the data showed.
On Monday, a total of 1,00,787 people received services, 29,310 taxpayers submitted their tax returns and the NBR collected Tk 317.77 crore in tax in the fairs, according to the NBR data.
The tax administration set a target to provide tax-related services to at least five lakh people and to collect Tk 1,100 crore in income tax in the tax fairs this year.
The number of people at the fair has been rising every year for the past few years as taxpayers, who often face harassment in NBR’s field offices in submitting taxes, get one stop services at the fair venue without hassle.
The revenue board on Sunday organised a closing ceremony of the fairs at Officers’ Club in Dhaka.
Chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on finance ministry AHM Mostafa Kamal, member of the committee Farida Rahman, Simin Hossain Rimi, among others, attended the closing ceremony presided over by the NBR member Md Bashir Uddin Ahmed.
The NBR arranged tax fairs 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 fairs arranged at seven divisional cities where 62,272 people submitted their income tax returns and 75,120 people received services.
-With New Age input
