NBR forgoes income tax fair over COVID-19 health fear

The National Board of Revenue has cancelled this year’s income tax fair, which had drawn huge crowds in the previous years, considering public health risks posed by the COVID-19 outbreak.

“We will make arrangements so that the taxpayers can get similar facilities at the field-level offices,” Arifa Shahana, a member of the board, told bdnews24.com on Wednesday after it made the decision.

After launching the fair in Dhaka and Chattogram in 2010, the NBR expanded it to districts and Upazilas in the following years.

A huge number of citizens wait for the fair as it is easier to pay taxes and submit returns there.

Officials help them fill out the forms while the banks set up booths for payments.

During last year’s fair, 655,000 citizens filed their returns while the NBR raked in taxes worth over Tk 26.13 billion, around 25 percent of the total income tax collected in the year.

The pandemic, however, has changed the picture this year, hitting earnings hard.

Many tax officials believe the number of citizens submitting taxes and returns will drop this time around.