Bangladesh plans to scrap tax fair for third consecutive year

People will have to look up the addresses of their respective tax offices once again to submit their returns as the National Board of Revenue decided not to organise the annual tax fair for the third consecutive year.

The NBR introduced the fair in 2010 to motivate people to pay taxes, but no tax fairs have been organised since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, like last year, field offices in all the tax zones will offer “fair-like” support and services to taxpayers during the entire month of November, according to Shaheen Akhter, a member of tax administration and human resources management at the NBR.

There are 40 tax zones in the country, according to bdnews24.com.

He also said the NBR chairman will soon organise a press conference to explain the decision not to hold a tax fair this year too.

Shaheen, however, claimed that people are more comfortable paying their taxes in the field offices as taxpayers do not have to travel far to attend fairs in their respective localities.

The deadline for individual taxpayers to file their returns in their respective zones is Nov 30.

The authorities will issue an acknowledgement of receipt to the taxpayers once they submit their tax files. A new service, called the “automated receipt”, has been added this year, which will be issued by Sonali Bank as an acknowledgement that the exchequer has received the returns submitted by an individual taxpayer.

The NBR's senior information officer Syed A Mumen confirmed that temporary information and service centres will be opened at the Bangladesh Secretariat, Officers' Club, Dhaka University and Dhaka Cantonment in November for government employees to submit their returns.

In the last fiscal year, at least 2.3 million people submitted their tax returns.

The tax authorities, since 2020, have made it mandatory to file income tax returns for people who were issued a tax identification number, or TIN.

The NBR said at present at least eight million people were issued TINs.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal made it mandatory to submit an acknowledgement of tax returns to receive 38 different services. The goal of this policy change was to increase the tax-GDP ratio, which is fairly poor in Bangladesh.

Tax authorities are hoping that people with TINs will be more inclined to submit their returns this year.