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Credit card use dips on tax phobia

M Abdur Rahim
Spending through credit cards in shopping malls, which reaches peak during Eid festivals, is witnessing a sharp decline this year as tax-phobia pushes credit card users on the backfoot.
The use of plastic money and its average spending have nosedived following introduction of mandatory TIN (taxpayer’s Identification number) for the new card-owners a few months back by the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
The Central Intelligence Cell (CIC), the intelligence arm of NBR, recently revealed gross mismatch between the spending habit of some consumers and their poor tax returns. The detection prompted CIC to ask issuing banks to submit full details of spending against all credit cards.
The tax department's close watch on use of credit cards trig- gered a steep fall on spending through credit cards. Many users have surrendered credit cards in fear of exposure of their spending to the tax officials.
A high official of card division of a private bank said usually spending through credit cards rises two to three folds during Eid occasion but this year there is no high-volume use of credit cards in shopping malls.
He said, "We are yet to get monthly statements from outlets but through interactions with shop-owners we have come to know that there is little high-volume use of credit cards this year. We usually receive 500 to 600 applications for credit cards a month but now we get only200 to 250."
An official of Vanik Bangladesh, which has over 16,000 credit cards in market, said, "After the NBR move on credit card, the business fell drastically. But it is recovering
now although use this time is much less than last year’s Eid."
"We are offering 5 to 20 percent discount against purchase of products through our cards during this year’s Eid. Earlier people preferred using credit cards to carrying cash due to security reasons. But the government move put brake on credit card use this season," the official said.
However, some shopkeepers said some seasoned customers having clear tax paying records still prefer payment through credit cards.
Presently, Standard Chartered Bank, Prime Bank, National Bank, Eastern Bank, The City Bank, Southeast Bank, Premier Bank, United Commercial Bank and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) are in credit card business in Bangladesh.
At present, the number of credit cards in the country is around two
lakh. Standard Chartered leads the business with about 80,000 cards.
Banking sources said following the CIC detection of mismatch between credit card use and poor tax returns, applications for credit cards have halved in the last three months. Besides, spending against a card has come down steeply from the monthly average of Tk 20,000 per cardholder previously.
With businesses squeezing after the CIC move, banks met high officials of the Cell and urged it to scrutinise the high spenders only. However, CIC asked banks to submit complete details on the spending of all credit cardholders.
The CIC would now randomly monitor data of cardholders and scrutinise the details to know the lifestyle and habit of the country’s high-spending consumers. Bankers termed the move a blow to retail banking and diversification of financial products.