Kar Bahadur title may go
The tax administrator plans to discontinue the Kar Bahadur title, a decoration that was introduced last year to honour long-time taxpaying families and to encourage high-income families to pay tax properly.
Last year, the government honoured the country's 84 top taxpayer families with the title along with 141 top taxpayers in various sectors and professions.
“We are not going to confer any title named Kar Bahadur this year,” said a top official of the income tax department of the National Board of Revenue, seeking anonymity.
“But we will continue awarding the top taxpayers.”
The tax authority has also decided to stop providing income tax identification cards to the taxpayers in the upcoming annual tax fair to be held from November 13 to November 19 in Dhaka and other divisional cities.
“We have already communicated the matters with the finance minister.”
The NBR issued the plastic cards, known as Tax ID, in the last year's fair acknowledging the receipt of tax returns.
“This card has no utility. This is simply an acknowledgement receipt,” said the official. “So, we will not issue the tax ID cards in the upcoming fair. Rather, we are considering issuing something like smart card by adding some benefits to it.”
An inter-ministerial meeting is likely to take place in this regard, said the official.
However, individual taxpayers will be provided services and assistances to complete tax-related formalities in the fair. In Dhaka, the annual event will take place at the Officers' Club Dhaka.
“In the upcoming event, we expect the tax returns to double this year than the previous year,” he said.
Some 3 lakh returns were submitted in the fair last year, according to the NBR.
