Published : 26 Aug 2026, 03:27 PM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:35 AM
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has set a target of collecting Tk 6 trillion in revenue in the current fiscal year, a massive jump from the Tk 4.1 trillion the agency collected in the previous fiscal year. This means it has to collect Tk 1.8 trillion more this year—requiring growth of approximately 45.4 percent over the previous year's actual collection.
As this ambitious target looms, the NBR is struggling with a shortage of manpower and digital systems that are not yet fully integrated. In the income tax department alone, 4,552 posts are vacant out of 12,764 sanctioned positions. That means about 35.7 percent of the approved posts have no employees.
At the same time, although several digital systems—including e-TIN, e-Return, e-TDS, VAT Online and ASYCUDA World—are in operation, the NBR has acknowledged that many of them remain disconnected. There is still no system through which all of a taxpayer's income tax, VAT and customs information can be viewed in one place. A fully automated system from beginning to end has also not yet been established.
Against this backdrop, the NBR is planning to move away from conventional, officer-dependent surveys and introduce digital surveys, geographic information, business transaction data and a system that can bring an individual's entire economic activity together in one place to increase revenue collection.
This picture emerged from a report presented by the NBR at the second meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Finance on Sunday. The meeting was chaired by committee Chairman Mushfiqur Rahman at the Parliament complex.
The Parliament Secretariat said a detailed presentation was made on the NBR's capacity to finance government expenditure, measures to increase the tax-to-GDP ratio, and the organisational structure of the agency.
Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and other committee members attended the meeting. Senior officials from various agencies under the Ministry of Finance, including the NBR chairman and members, also participated.
The budget expenditure for the current 2026-27 fiscal year is Tk 9.38 trillion. The overall revenue target is Tk 6.95 trillion, of which Tk 6 trillion is expected from taxes administered by the NBR. In other words, the NBR has to collect 86.9 percent of the total revenue target. Its revenue is also expected to finance 64.4 percent of the total budget expenditure.
According to NBR figures, about Tk 86 out of every Tk 100 collected in government revenue currently comes through the agency. In the 2001-02 fiscal year, NBR revenue collection stood at Tk 202 billion. Over 25 years, it has risen to nearly Tk 4.5 trillion. The NBR report says revenue collection has increased 20.6-fold during this period. However, growth in recent years has been much lower.
According to the report, NBR revenue growth was 12.66 percent in fiscal 2021-22. It fell to 10.57 percent the following year. Growth stood at 11 percent in fiscal 2023-24 and declined to 2.50 percent in 2024-25. In the last fiscal year, growth was 12.03 percent.
Given this reality, the NBR is focusing on expanding the tax base, reducing tax evasion and increasing the use of technology to achieve this year's ambitious target.
‘Conventional Surveys Have Not Produced Results’
An NBR official told bdnews24.com that the traditional method of expanding the tax net relied heavily on field-level officers and employees. Surveys were conducted and businesses were identified. There was significant dependence on people to identify potential taxpayers. However, the official said this approach had repeatedly failed to produce the desired results.
The agency therefore plans to make surveys as digital as possible this time. The official said geographic information systems (GIS) can be used to obtain information about changes in land and buildings in cities. Information is also available from various organisations showing what type of building existed on a particular plot 20 years ago, how much the building has expanded since then, how many floors it now has and who owns the property. The NBR wants to connect such information through its own database.
The agency also plans to collect business transaction data from different organisations through APIs, or automated data exchange. According to the NBR official, the goal is to create a picture of an individual's complete “economic footprint.” The agency wants to determine who is conducting transactions and where, what assets they are purchasing, whether they are running a business, and what their potential capacity to pay taxes is, and use this information to set priorities.
TIN Holders Without Tax Returns
The NBR report says simply issuing new Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs) should not be considered an expansion of the tax net. The goal will first be to turn TIN holders into return filers and eventually into active taxpayers who regularly pay taxes.
For this purpose, the agency plans to use information on bank accounts and large transactions, purchases and sales of land, houses and flats, vehicle ownership, and company directors and shareholders. Information on business licences, imports and exports, credit-card spending, overseas travel, stock-market investments and government procurement will also be examined.
The agency also plans to use data on high-value electricity and gas connections, major spending on education and healthcare, digital businesses, professional income and house rent.
Using this information, the NBR wants to automatically identify potential taxpayers who do not have TINs, as well as people who have TINs but fail to file tax returns.
Taxpayers are also planned to be divided into several categories: active taxpayers, those who file returns but have no tax liability, those who do not file returns, those who have been inactive for a long period, and potential taxpayers.
People With Mismatched Income, Assets to be Flagged
The NBR also plans to establish a “National Income Tax Data Matching System” to compare a taxpayer's declared income with their actual financial activities.
The report gives an example: a person declares an annual income of Tk 1.2 million, but Tk 12 million is deposited into their bank account. The person buys a vehicle worth Tk 5 million and land worth Tk 10 million, while also travelling abroad five times a year. The system would automatically identify such discrepancies.
The report also outlines plans to create an integrated profile for every taxpayer. It would contain information on declared income, tax payments, bank transactions, immovable property, vehicles, company ownership, stock-market investments, imports and exports, and overseas travel.
If significant discrepancies are found between income, expenditure and asset acquisition, the taxpayer would be placed in a higher-risk category. In the case of high-net-worth individuals, the agency plans to examine not only declared income but also increases in wealth and lifestyle-related expenditure.
Technology to Address the Manpower Shortage
According to the NBR official, it is not possible to recruit the required number of employees overnight given the country's circumstances.
Therefore, the agency wants to reduce direct human involvement in tasks that can be performed through technology. This would allow the existing workforce to be deployed for other important responsibilities.
The NBR report has highlighted the manpower situation in the income tax department.
Of the 466 sanctioned posts for deputy commissioners of taxes, 246 are currently filled, leaving 220 vacant. Of the 1,621 posts for tax inspectors, 634 are vacant. Among the 6,021 posts in grades 11 to 16, 3,628 are filled, while 2,393 remain vacant.
Overall, the income tax department has 8,212 employees against 12,764 sanctioned positions.
The NBR report said investment in infrastructure and human resource development has been inadequate compared with the scale of revenue collection and the complexity of the work. There is also scope to develop expertise in information technology, data science, forensic accounting, economics and transfer pricing to the desired level.
The report also highlighted a major weakness in the existing system in relation to the NBR's plans for technology-driven tax administration.
Digital systems such as e-TIN, e-Return, e-TDS, VAT Online, ASYCUDA World, the Customs Bond Management System and Bangladesh Single Window are already in place. However, many of these systems operate separately.
There are separate platforms for e-TIN, Business Identification Number (BIN) and customs registration. But there is still no single account containing all the information of an individual taxpayer.
The NBR has therefore proposed bringing the separate digital systems for income tax, VAT and customs under a “One NBR Architecture.”
Some information is already being exchanged with the National Identity Card database, company registration authorities, land authorities, import-export systems, savings certificates, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC). Work is also under way to exchange information with banks, the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and other government agencies.
The parliamentary committee meeting also placed emphasis on this digitisation.
According to a press release from the Parliament Secretariat, committee members called for reducing dependence on direct contact between officials and service recipients to prevent corruption. Rather than merely identifying or punishing individuals involved in corruption, they stressed changing the processes that create opportunities for corruption in the first place.
The meeting also observed that this would reduce costs and harassment for businesses while increasing revenue collection.
System to Prepare Tax Returns for Taxpayers
According to an NBR official, many potential taxpayers, including small business owners, are apprehensive about the complexities of filing tax returns.
Tax laws are frequently changed. It is difficult for a small business owner to know all the relevant provisions. For this reason, the NBR plans to use a taxpayer's income and transaction data to generate a draft tax return automatically through the system.
The taxpayer would review the draft to verify whether the information is correct. If everything is accurate, they will submit it. If there are errors, they could make corrections.
The report specifically mentions plans to introduce “pre-filled tax returns” for salaried employees.
If information on salaries, bank interest, tax deducted at source, investments and tax rebates is already available in the system, taxpayers would not have to enter all the information again.
The NBR official argued that this would reduce direct interaction between tax officials and taxpayers. It would also reduce opportunities for revenue losses caused by human intervention.
Focus on Arrears, Tax Exemptions
Alongside identifying new taxpayers, the NBR also wants to focus on collecting long-standing outstanding revenue.
Citing customs data, the report said more than Tk 250 billion in revenue is owed by different government and private organisations. The NBR plans to intensify efforts to recover these arrears.
At the same time, the agency wants to review tax exemptions and concessions.
According to customs data, tax exemptions worth approximately Tk 771.6 billion were granted to various products and sectors in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The NBR said tax exemptions would remain in place based on public interest and industrial needs. However, the necessity and effectiveness of each benefit would be evaluated regularly.
In the VAT system, work is also under way on e-invoicing, risk-based audits, information exchange among different government systems and establishing a framework for collecting revenue from e-commerce.
The NBR plans to introduce a track-and-trace system to monitor the production and supply of tobacco products. The report also mentions plans to install AI-powered cameras alongside counting devices at factories and place QR or AR codes on cigarette stamps.
The NBR also wants to develop a mobile app through which citizens can report information about illegal cigarettes, along with a reward system for informants.
In customs, initiatives are under way to introduce automated risk management using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
To prevent revenue evasion through mis-invoicing—by deliberately understating or overstating the value of imports and exports—and to combat money laundering through trade, the agency has also said customs attaché positions should be created, where necessary, at Bangladesh missions in countries that are major trading partners.
Discussion on Structural Changes
Changing the NBR's institutional structure is also now under discussion within the government.
Two ordinances were issued in 2025 to divide revenue policy and revenue administration into two separate departments.
However, the report said that because the ordinances were not converted into laws after parliament became operational, they are considered to have lapsed.
On Apr 28, the current government formed a high-level reform committee to review the establishment of a Revenue Policy Department and a Revenue Management Department.
According to the report, the committee has already held four meetings and is expected to submit its report shortly.
Big Target, Test Lies in Implementation
The NBR report said Bangladesh's tax-to-GDP ratio was 6.8 percent in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The target is to raise it to 10 percent in the medium term and to 15 percent by 2035.
To achieve this, the agency says it will place greater emphasis on expanding the tax base rather than simply increasing tax rates, identifying tax evasion through data matching, collecting outstanding revenue, reviewing tax benefits and introducing a technology-driven administration.
An NBR official told bdnews24.com that, in view of the ambitious revenue target for the current year, a roadmap has been prepared for identifying sectors from which additional revenue could be collected across all three divisions—income tax, VAT and customs.
