Taxpayers faced awful experience at the first day of the fourth weeklong income tax fair that began on Monday as the National Board of Revenue could hardly provide new taxpayers identification numbers or replace the old TINs online due to technical glitches.
Except some exception, the NBR could not issue e-TIN or replace 10-digit old TIN by 12-digit one till 4 pm because of malfunctioning of the database server of national identification number of the Election Commission.
The NBR also failed to provide internet connection in the first-half of the day at the fair venue at Officers Club in Dhaka.
Taxpayers alleged that they could not take their e-TIN as the server broke down repeatedly at the fair.
‘The NBR failed to provide it at fair that increased our hassle… we will have to visit the fair again for receiving e-TIN though the NBR had assured us of providing one stop services at the fair,’ a taxpayer told New Age.
Registration for e-TIN and replacement of old TIN is the main focus of the NBR at the fair along with other services such as submission of income tax returns, tax payment online, providing tax education and creating awareness among the taxpayers.
Keeping NID server on is a must for providing e-TIN as the NBR needs to crosscheck the information provided by the taxpayers with the NID database.
The technical glitches made the taxpayers frustrated and they were forced to leave the fair just submitting a manually filled-up form for e-TIN, officials of the NBR said.
They said that many taxpayers took back their forms after waiting hours for getting e-TINs.
Those who left filled-up forms at the e-TIN registration and re-registration booths will have to visit the fair again for taking TIN certificates, they said.
‘Though we got internet connection at noon, server of the NID database remained down almost all the day that kept us idle,’ a tax official working at the venue said.
Now officials will update the information provided by the taxpayers on the online system and later inform the taxpayers about his new e-TIN or replaced TIN through SMS on mobile or e-mail, he said.
Visiting the fair at 4pm, New Age found that many e-TIN booths, out of 44, could not handle a single application.
Taxmen working at booth No. 23 said that they registered information for a new TIN at online system at 1 pm but the application
remained pending even after three hours of registration due to failure of the server.
Mohi Uddin, a taxpayer, withdrew his form from the same booth after waiting for more than an hour after submission of application for new TIN.
‘I have been trying repeatedly to get e-TIN sitting at home and office in last three days. But I failed. Now I am forced to take back my application as the NBR could not provide it,’ he told New Age.
Taxmen at booth No. 37 could issue only one TIN one hour before the ending time of the day’s fair.
NBR member Basiruddin Ahmed said that they requested the NID wing of the Election Commission for repairing the server and hopefully the server will become fully effective by evening.
Another official said that all the problems related to server would go from Tuesday.
However, the NID server became effective after 4pm, officials said.
According to NBR data, taxmen could issue 763 new e-TINs and replace 1,444 old TINs with e-TINs across the country by evening.
The fourth weeklong income tax fair began on the day at seven divisional headquarters and two-day tax fair at eight district headquarters—Gopalganj, Shariatpur, Gazipur, Brahmanbaria, Habiganj, Bogra, Comilla, Chandpur and Rajbari.
Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith inaugurated the fair at Officers Club in Dhaka at morning while NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain was present.
-With New Age input
