The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Not a single person holding undisclosed money has come up yet to avail the latest amnesty given to the tax-dodgers as a last chance, prompting the authorities to think about a simultaneous hunt.

The renewed chance to show undisclosed money earned by legal means, starting from July 1 for a short period of four months, came under the amnesty given by the present caretaker government while a fight is on against corruption.

This is for a second consecutive time the present nonparty government is conceding amnesty to people who did not disclose their legally earned money, and thereby evaded paying the wealth tax.

Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam in his budget speech on June 9 said that the individual tax-payers could declare their undeclared legal income accrued in any year in a prescribed format.

But the individuals have to pay a penalty at the rate of 7 percent on the tax payable in addition to the regular taxes at the rates applicable for FY 2008-09. This window of opportunity will remain open from 1 July to October 31, 2008.

Admitting to the matter of having received no response from the taxpayers, NBR chairman Muhammad Abdul Mazid told UNB, "Yes, the response till now is poor, as the taxpayers now might be thinking among themselves (over the amnesty matter)."

He observed as the amnesty prolongs for October 31, the taxpayers are waiting to disclose the money during the submission of their income-tax return.

"This is the strong reason behind the no-response position of the taxpayers up till now," Majid said.

But the government's chief revenue collector warned that the submission of income-tax return in September does not mean that the NBR will sit idle.

"The drive to detect tax evasion will go on and we are in a strict position to detect the tax- evaders," said the chairman of NBR, which joined forces with the anti-graft watchdog ACC in chasing many bigwigs in the initial stages of the ongoing purge in the interim period.

The caretaker government last fiscal year gave the amnesty for the tax delinquents to come above board with their undisclosed money that was earned by legal means in another format.

Under the amnesty, the tax-dodgers having Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) have to pay extra 5 percent as fines apart from their usual taxes with the normal tax base of that particular period.

Earlier, successive governments had offered similar amnesty for the tax defaulters several times, the latest one in the 2005-06 fiscal year. But that was for both the groups of tax-dodgers-those who earned honestly and those dishonestly.

The scheme, however, failed to make any major headway as only Tk 5,213 crore undisclosed income was disclosed in the period, with the government earning an extra tax of Tk 802 crore.

Only 42,459 people availed the opportunity, despite an earlier forecast that the nationwide anti-graft crackdown launched by the caretaker government would prompt hundreds of thousands to get whitened their unrevealed income.

Immediate-past Prime Minister and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman also availed the clemency, which evoked criticism.

In his 2005-06 budget speech, the then Finance Minister, Saifur Rahman, had said that a good number of people were still holding the purse strings of such income, who, for some reason or the other, could not avail this opportunity.

He had proposed extending the time limit of disclosure of such incomes of the hidebound moneyed persons without any explanation by paying only 7.5 percent income tax up to the 30th of June 2006.

Some Tk 4,603 crore from a stash of such money, popularly known as black money, was legalized taking advantage of pecuniary amnesty in the 2005-06 fiscal year at a tax rate of 7.5 per cent penalty.

A total of 7,246 people-businessmen, doctors, lawyers and the like-availed the opportunity to legalize the undisclosed money by paying Tk 345.225 crore to the national exchequer.

The BNP-led alliance government first gave the similar chance in 2002-03 when Tk 1,000 crore came above board. Then they again gave the chance in 2005-06.

The first chance for legalization of the undisclosed money was given in 1976, then in 1988, 1989 and 1990. The amount of legalized money in 1976 was Tk 70 crore, in 1988 the amount was Tk 200 crore, in 1989 it was Tk 250 crore while in 1990 the amount was Tk 400 crore.