Tax payment through mobile banking yet to gain people’s confidence

Income tax payment through the mobile banking systems is yet to gain the taxpayers' confidence due to service charge and trust issues.  

Starting on November 14, the tax fair will continue till November 20. The mobile banking service providers have individual booths at the fair.

A senior executive of bKash, told The Business Standard, "We provide hassle-free service but the response is very poor. Most people came to our booth just for information. But it is increasing day by day." 

When a taxpayer pays tax through bKash app, a barcode and an invoice are sent to his or her e-mail. 

The bKash official said, "We print the invoice directly when the code is shown. But taxpayers complained that the whole process is not simple." 

Sajjad Hossain, an employee of a private company, came to the bKash stall for paying his tax on Saturday. But he did not use that service when he learned about the complicated process of getting an invoice and paying an extra 1.85 percent service charge.

"My income tax return requires me to pay Tk12,725. I will have to pay an extra Tk230 if I make the payment through bKash," Sajjad told The Business Standard.

"Income tax invoices can be collected more easily when I pay from the banks. And I also do not have to pay the extra money," explained Sajjad.

The bKash authority claimed that there is no service charge imposed upon the customers in the tax fair. 

Shamsuddin Haider Dalim, head of Corporate Communications at the bKash Limited, said, "Initially, in the testing phase before the start of the fair, we fixed 1.1 percent charge that was withdrawn before beginning of the tax fair. Now it is totally free of cost."

Since Sunday, the service charge has been waived at the fair, said Kanon Kumar Roy, coordinator of mobile banking service and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) member.

"Mobile banking service has been introduced so that taxpayers can pay their taxes at any time of the day without spending extra time and money. Earlier, they had to pay a service charge. But all service charges have been withdrawn from Sunday at the fair," said Kanon.

However, the NBR member is unsure if the free service will continue after the fair.

Meanwhile, taxpayers are skeptical about the service charges and printing of invoices while paying tax through mobile banking.

Taxpayer Nazmun Nahar said people have trust in paying tax through banks as they have been doing it for years. 

"But we hear a lot of complaints about mobile banking. So we still cannot rely on it," she said.

The NBR collected Tk1,347 crore of income tax in the first four days of the weeklong income tax fairs at different venues across the country, according to the sources at the revenue board.

"Around 3.15 lakh taxpayers filed their income tax returns in the first four days of the fairs. A record 9.69 lakh people received tax-related services," said Said A Mo'men, senior information officer of the NBR. 

A M'omen also said, on Sunday alone, the NBR received Tk283 crore from 82,916 taxpayers.