Bangladesh waives penalties for late income tax returns filing during coronavirus crisis

Taxpayers will not be fined or levied interests if they fail to file income tax returns on time during the coronavirus outbreak or in times of war and disasters.

The National Board of Revenue or NBR will not have to take responsibility for lost revenues due to its failure to collect taxes in the event of a disaster, according to the final draft of ‘Income Tax (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020’, which was cleared by the Cabinet in a meeting at Ganabhaban on Thursday.

Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam announced the new rules in a briefing on Bangladesh Television and the Cabinet Division made the audio recording of the briefing public.

A new section was added to the previous law exempting everyone from the penalties while calculating the income taxes in cases it was not paid on time.

“All official activities of the income tax agency have remained suspended since the general holidays began on Mar 26 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Hence, both the taxpayers and the tax collecting authorities have already failed to comply with the rules of the Income Tax Ordinance, 1984,” he said.

“Since the income tax authorities have failed to penalise the taxpayers on time, legal prospects of imposing liabilities for loss of revenues have emerged,” he said.

The cabinet secretary said the new section, 184G, has been added to the ordinance to pardon such mishandling due to any ‘epidemic, pandemic, war and any other act of God’, including the coronavirus outbreak. It says that NBR can extend or modify the time for payment of taxes in such times.

Due to the parliament sessions remaining suspended amid the shutdown, the law ministry will further scrutinise the new provision before issuing it in the form of an ordinance with the approval of the president. It will be presented to the parliament on the opening day of its resumption.