In one case, a person was found to have splurged Tk 29 lakh by charging his credit card although he showed the annual income to be Tk 94,000 in the income tax returns. And in another case, one put his yearly income at Tk 1.26 lakh but he spent more than Tk 11 lakh through credit card.

The CIC, formed at the suggestion of the donors, ran an investigation on the clearing and forwarding (C&F) agents and found that they conceal half their income in commission, according to officials at the NBR.

It realised more than Tk 2 crore alone from the C&F agents in Chittagong last year, according to the officials. A new information base has been set up to detect large taxpayers that have slipped out of the tax net for follow-up enforcement.

"We've succeeded in detecting many cases of tax evasion so far and I believe we'll make more headway this year," NBR Chairman Khairuzzaman Chowdhury told The Daily Star yesterday.

He said the CIC will try to collect information from different sources about the income of a person to figure out how much one should pay in income tax and act accordingly.

Earlier on Saturday, the Income Tax Department of the NBR issued a circular detailing the power of the CIC which can summon income tax files, investigate them, check accounts, gather evidence and seize files that may appear dubious.

The CIC was formed late last year to monitor and probe irregularities in tax payment and it partially started operation after coming into existence. The CIC has started identifying potential tax evaders and are monitoring 35 large taxpayers.

The government has also expanded the large taxpayer unit (LTU) at the fag end of the last fiscal in line with an IMF suggestion to prevent potential large taxpayers from dodging tax.