Country spends Tk 14,000 cr ( $ 2 billion ) yearly on debt servicing (Bangladesh)

2.5 Million people have Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)

Friday August 22 2008 11:47:18 AM BDT

Bangladesh has to pay some Tk 14,000 crore annually in interest on a cumulative foreign loan hangover of 52 billion US dollars since independence, substantially curtailing its development spending.(UNB)Against this backdrop, the National Board of Revenue has taken a move to generate tax money from myriad potential taxpayers to help government out of credit trap. And at a single meet in one tax zone Thursday 2,742 new taxpayers registered voluntarily, paying nearly Tk 90 lakh.Disclosing the grim feature of high loan burden and a very low number of registered taxpayers, NBR Chairman Mohammad Abdul Mazid at the function urged people to help the government in building a self-reliant Bangladesh through paying their income tax spontaneously."Let's discharge our national duties by paying taxes," he told the programme on spontaneous taxpayers' registration under the Tax Zone-7 in the capital city at the Diploma Engineer's Institution.Presided over by Ziauddin Mahmud, Tax Commissioner for the Tax Zone-7, the function was attended by Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam and Channel-I Managing Director Faridur Reza Sagar as special guests.Abdul Mazid, also secretary of the Internal Resources Division, said the countrymen should come forward to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor in the country's socioeconomic scenario by paying their taxes alongside encouraging others to join in this process.Saying that the tax-collection network would be cast wide across the country, the government's chief revenue earner announced that five taxpayers from 64 districts would be awarded every year in Dhaka for their spontaneous contribution through paying their income tax.Abdul Mazid, who is leading the revenue sector at a time when the caretaker regime chased many bigwig tax-dodgers into prisons, said only 25-25 lakh ( 2.5 Million ) people have Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and only six and a half lakhs ( 650,000) of the TIN-holders submitted their returns to the tax offices last year.One and half a lakh ( 150,000)of them are service-holders and the rest 5 lakh are general people, he said, informing the function about the total number of taxpayers in the country.He observed that the number of the TIN-holders should be increased into some 1.5 crore, and at least one crore of them could be able to help the government by paying their income tax.The NBR chairman said the process of paying the income tax has been gradually made easy for the payees.Speaking at the function, Mahfuz Anam said people should be imbued with spirit that "paying income tax is a legal matter and breaking this law is a punishable offence".He proposed that the process of paying the income tax should be made easier and user-friendly-and the NBR net should be widened across the country to net more returns.He suggested that the arbitrary power of the tax commissioners in matters of tax assessment and collection should be curbed as the bigwig income taxpayers felt panicked."This arbitrary power should be decreased to remove the fear of the bigwig taxpayers," he said, indicating the recent crackdown on tax delinquents as part of the ongoing purge against corruption in high places.