NBR warns against underhand dealing in revenue collection
Staff Correspondent, Ctg
Sounding warning against any sort of underhand dealing in the revenue activities, National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Badiur Rahman has instructed the revenue officials to encourage payment of taxes following rules and asked the taxpayers not to indulge in bribing for getting undue favour.He was speaking at a view exchange meeting with businesspeople at the Chittagong chamber auditorium yesterday. The NBR chief also called upon the people to pay taxes on their undeclared properties or income, if any, by July 31 with a 5 per cent fine. The country's prime revenue collection authority has targeted to earn Tk 43, 850 crore revenue by this stipulated time. "Clear the taxes on the undeclared income on the basis of universal self assessment, no revenue officer would raise a question or go for auditing the assessment," the chairman said, making it clear that detecting any wrong in the assessment by the tax officials would only be allowed. Rahman warned drastic action against the tax evaders after July 31 when the amount of fine might rise maximum 250 percent. The NBR will also go for auditing and blacklisting the PSI companies, and to raise the number of PSI firms bringing dynamism and transparency in the pre-shipment inspection, he told the meeting. As the businessmen put up different instances of harassment by some revenue officials, the NBR chairman came down heavily on the revenue personnel concerned. "The blood that had been contaminated with poison for years might not be rectified by consultation or training overnight," he said, adding "let's try with your cooperation and see what could be done in a year." The NBR chairman assured the businessmen of replacing the scanner machine at Shah Amanat International Airport, Chittagong to end the suffering caused to the passengers during the luggage checking soon. Responding to another problem, he said that Patiya and other places near the port city would be brought under Chittagong zone of NBR. Pointing to the fact that the validity of bond certificate has been raised to two years from one year, he said bond commissioners are now entitled to issuing bonds. NBR Member (customs and VAT administration) A M Mashrur Ahmed and Bond Commissioner Khairuzzaman also attended the meeting, chaired by President of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. CCCI Senior Vice President MA Latif, CCCI and FBCCI Director Amirul Haq, Chairman of Chittagong Club Limited Engineer Ali Ahmad, also a former president of CCCI, CCCI's former senior vice president Ershad Ullah, CCCI Director Mahfuzul Haq Shah and C&F Association President Akter Hossain spoke on the occasion.
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