Besides, people who have ill-gained bank deposits or savings instruments will get the chance to whiten the black money, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) announced in a circular last Saturday.

The NBR circular detailed the changes in direct taxes introduced by the current national budget. The changes require taxpayers to provide statements of their assets and lifestyle information with their income tax returns. Otherwise, the returns will not be accepted.

The budget made an amendment to the Income Tax Ordinance, 1984 making it mandatory for taxpayers to state the assets, liabilities and expenses of their own, their spouses, minor children and other dependants along with the income tax returns. The legal revision is aimed at scaling down tax evasion.

The deadline for return submission is September 30. Those who would fail to meet the deadline or submit incomplete returns will be penalised.

An NBR source said many government officials have shady income and have amassed large sums through corruption. These corrupt government staffs often manage to dodge income tax payment against their ill-gained wealth using various crafty means. A most common one of these is claiming the unaccountable wealth to have received as gift or dowry from their in-laws.

According to the new pay scale, government officials will submit self-assessed income tax returns and pay accordingly. The government later will refund them the tax paid.

In case of buying apartments or houses with black money, the tax has been raised from Tk 150 to Tk 200 per square feet for a floor space up to 200 square feet and from Tk 250 to Tk 300 for over 200 square feet.

The NBR circular has elaborated a provision of the current budget for whitening black money. NBR sources said many professionals like lawyers, physicians and engineers evade paying income tax and keep the black money secret, depositing it in non-revealed bank accounts or investing in saving instruments. They will now get the chance to whiten that money by paying 7.5 percent tax.

However, the money whitened under this provision will not be included in the income statement of the taxpayers, but will be added to their wealth statement. This measure is aimed at preventing taxpayer to show their regular income as black money, as the tax on the latter is much less than the former. Ironically, while the lowest rate of tax on taxable income is 10 percent, it is 2.5 percent more than the tax on black money.