Private research agency, Centre for Policy Dialogue, CPD, has said: “fifty percent people feel that NBR’s taxation system is critical.”
At a recently held discussion, CPD’s senior research fellow, Toufiqul Islam Khan, said: After carrying out a survey among 1200 people, CPD has found that half have labelled the tax system to be complex.
Around 65 percent feel that NBR taxation system is corrupt. The survey also reveals that one-third of high-income people did not pay tax last year; many evaded tax.
Around 85 percent of respondents in the survey feel that if the system is improved then the masses will feel encouraged to pay tax.
CPD’s recommendation states that to earn the trust of the people, tax office has to be free of corruption.
At the discussion, NBR chairman, Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, said: “NBR is trying to raise tax. Of 3.5 million e-TIN holders, 2 million are not paying return.”
CPD fellow, Dr Debarpriya Bhatyacharya, bemoaned, “Good governance is essential for economic progress; those who evade tax are often allowed to go free and no one is punished.”
IMF’s resident representative Ragnar Gudmundsson, said, “Against GDP, tax collection is very low, only 9 percent – the lowest in South Asia.