Tax-paying no more taxing, says Muhith as he eyes 1.8 million taxpayers

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has hoped the number of taxpayers will cross the 1.8 million mark this fiscal following a change in the culture of income tax collection.

The minister expressed the hope at the inauguration of Income Tax Week at Revenue Building in the capital’s Agargaon on Thursday.

He also handed tax cards and citations to top taxpayers for their contribution to the economy.

The government is running a host of programmes to achieve the target of Tk 719.4 billion income tax collection in 2016-17 fiscal year.

The Income Tax Week is being held for the first time after Income Tax Fair earlier this month.

“The people of our country had once thought that it was not a good idea to pay taxes. They thought they would get trapped for the rest of their lives once they pay tax,” Muhith said at the inauguration.

“But it’s not right. Now taxpayers are reassured that paying tax does not mean suffering,” he added.

Taxpayers were happy with the services they got during the Income Tax Fair and hoped tax officials would continue helping them, as they did in the fair, throughout the year.

Muhith noted that the number of taxpayers has risen significantly.

“We had initially targeted to increase the number of taxpayers to 1.8 million. But now it seems that the number may touch 2 million. So a new target of 2.5 million can be taken,” he said.

According to him, 1.1 million citizens paid taxes in 2015-16 fiscal year.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Nojibur Rahman presided over the programme. Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, among others, spoke at the function.

To encourage individuals and organisations to pay taxes, the government has raised the number of top taxpayers from 20 to 141 under different categories this year.

The NBR also awarded 518 top taxpayers at district and city corporation levels.