Sanchayapatra customers to get tax certificates online

The Bangladesh Bank has developed a software to automate the sending of sanchayapatras (savings instrument) customers' tax certificates to their email addresses. 

At the time of filing the income tax return, a sanchayapatra customer will no longer have to go to the bank or the national savings directorate in person to get his tax certificate. 

The tax certificate will be sent to the e-mail address used in the customer form at the time of purchasing the sanchayapatra. To this end, the Information Systems Development and Support Department of the Bangladesh Bank has developed a software named BB SanchayapatraPortal. 

Sanchayapatra investors are required to submit a copy of their tax certificates along with the income tax returns every year. The central bank, the savings directorate and the banks involved in the sale of sanchayapatra issue the certificates to the customers, stating that the source tax has been deducted from the interest on the money invested in the sanchayapatra. Customers have to apply every year to get it.

The Financial Institutions Division (FID) has instructed the Bangladesh Bank to issue tax certificates online to alleviate the suffering of sanchayapatra buyers. The central bank developed this software in response to that. 

The Bangladesh Bank informed the FID on Wednesday that apart from sending the tax certificate to the customer's e-mail, there would be arrangements so that the customer himself can print the certificate by entering the portal.

Md Serajul Islam, executive director and spokesperson for the Bangladesh Bank, told The Business Standard the process of sending sanchayapatra customers tax certificates online was underway.   

The central bank letter said data on sanchayapatras sold until March 13 last year are stored in the Bangladesh Bank software. It will be possible to email the tax certificates of owners of sanchayapatras sold until that day, it added.

Mohammad Ishaque Mia, system manager of the Information Systems Development and Support Department, wrote that the IBAS++ software of the finance ministry has been managing sanchayapatra activities since March 14 last year.  

"If the tax certificates of these sanchayapatras are to be given through the Information Systems Development and Support Department, information on their sale is required from the IBAS++ software. Integration of the Bangladesh Bank software with the IBAS++ software or the Application Programming Interface (API) will be required to exchange information," he wrote. 

Officials said the FID would write to the Finance Division to arrange API between the central bank software and the IBAS++ software.