NBR to form four new units to prevent tax evasion

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) will form four new units as part of its compliance risk management to prevent tax evasion, said sources.

The units will be called – income tax intelligence unit, withholding tax management unit, E-tax management unit and international tax unit.

In addition, the NBR has announced some other initiatives to ensure tax compliance, after a closed-door meeting between its Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem and the visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation yesterday, according to sources at the NBR. 

The initiatives include data analytics and technology integration, initiating more programmes to increase the number of return submissions, tax net expansion, monitoring at source deduction compliance, increasing collection of arrear tax and advance income tax, quick disposal of disputed cases and audit.

The tax department of the NBR earlier handed over a report to its chairman to hold discussion with the mission. 

However, after the meeting, no comments were received immediately from the IMF team or the NBR chairman about the issues discussed. 

A senior NBR official, on condition of anonymity, told The Business Standard, "The content of today's discussion [with the IMF], and NBR's position will be sent to the finance ministry soon."

The NBR has not been able to meet the revenue collection target for the last FY23 under the condition of the $4.7 billion loan approved by the multilateral money lender agency for Bangladesh. 

On 5 October, the progress and targets of the tax-to-GDP ratio for this year were highlighted by the NBR in a meeting with the IMF.

After that, the mission held a second meeting with the NBR chairman on Monday (9 October).