The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) had for the second time extended the deadline of submitting income tax return, but it failed to get the desired response from the taxpayers. In the last 15 days, only 55,535 persons submitted their income tax returns that enriched the national exchequer by Tk 39.95 crore. The NBR extended the time for submitting income tax return by one month to October 31 on poor response from taxpayers to meet the first deadline set for September 30.

NBR chairman Muhammad Abdul Majid, defending the second extension of deadline, said he was not satisfied with the income tax returns submitted so far. But he was hopeful of a significant rise in the number on setting the new deadline till November 30. But the first 15 days of the extended deadline belied his expectation of receiving large number of tax returns.

On October 31, some 301,421 persons submitted their income tax returns depositing Tk 513.87 crore to the national exchequer. This seemed unsatisfactory to the NBR chief.

At present, there are more than two million (20 lakh) Tax Identification Number (TIN) holders in the country. As of November 15, NBR received Tk 553.82 crore from 356,956 persons against their tax returns.

Of the amount, Tk 344.78 crore came from 134,326 taxpayers who submitted general tax returns, Tk 128.40 crore from 118,350 persons who filed self-assessment returns and Tk 80.63 crore from 104,280 individuals opting for universal self-assessment.

The number of income tax returns submitted last year was 535,994 with the government earning Tk 252.11 crore for the national exchequer. Talking to UNB, a senior NBR official expressed his dissatisfaction over the "very poor" response from the taxpayers in submitting income tax returns during the newly extended deadline (Nov 30). "Really, I am very much dissatisfied at the very poor number of tax returns submitted in the first 15 days of this month," he said. There is very little chance to have a big boost in the submission of tax returns over the last 15 days, he added.

The NBR official indicated that from December 1 next, they would start their usual drive against the tax dodgers.

The government has set a revenue target of Tk 10,838 crore from income tax sector for the fiscal 2007-08.