Doulot Akter Mala
Survey conducted on finding new taxpayers suffers a setback in the current fiscal due to relocation and expansion of tax offices and shortage of taxmen.

The government has included only 43,600 new taxpayers in the tax net in the current year against its target for 3,00,000.

Talking to the FE, a senior member of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) said expansion of tax offices and lack of adequate manpower hinder the survey activities in the current fiscal.

"We are focusing on spot assessment as it can bring taxpayers directly to the tax net which is not possible through conventional external survey," he said.

The NBR has conducted 256 spot assessments and issued Taxpayers Identification Number (TIN) to 11,345 new taxpayers until March, he said.

A total of Tk 23.2 million in taxes has been collected through spot assessment, he said.

"We expect Tk 50 million taxes from the spot assessment by the end of the current year," he added.

Last year, the board set a target for 5,00,000 new taxpayers that was reduced to 3,00,000 for the current year.

Tax officials in the field offices said they are already occupied by so many tax files amid lack of manpower.

They said each of the Deputy Commissioner of Taxes (DCT) handles at least 10,000 manual income tax files.

"Until introduction of full-fledged automation in the tax offices, such survey activities and coordination of its data will face obstacles," said an income tax official in the field-level.

Expanding tax base is one of the major challenges of the government as contribution of direct taxes is poor in our country in the South-Asia.

Proportion of direct and indirect tax is 29 per cent in Bangladesh while it is 56 per cent in India, 37 per cent in Pakistan, 75 per cent in Malaysia.

According to NBR data, number of taxpayers is only 0.75 among 100 people in Bangladesh. Only 33 taxpayers submit tax returns out of 100 registered taxpayers.