The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is set to take tax-related services to people's doorsteps via the week-long tax fair starting September 16.

The fair, now in its fourth year, will be held till September 22 in all divisional cities, including Dhaka. And for the first time, the showcase will take place in 61 district towns for two days between September 16 and 22.

The tax authority will hold the fair through mobile trucks at the three hilly districts of Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban during this period. "All the arrangements such as returns filing and tax payment will be there at the fair," NBR Chairman Md Ghulam Hussain said at a press meet yesterday.

The meet was organised at the NBR headquarters to herald the tax fair and Tax Day observations on September 15 in all divisional cities. The revenue authority will award top taxpayers at national district level to mark the occasion.

Hussain said the NBR has some specific objectives from this year's fairs, which would provide one-stop services to the taxpayers.

"One of our aims is to inform people of the benefits from the changes we have brought to the law this year. Another is to encourage taxpayers to register online for taxpayer identification number through our e-TIN registration platform," he said, adding that the deadline for e-TIN registration will expire on December 31,2013.

Since the launch of the platform in July, some 218,000 taxpayers have got their TINs online, with 53,000 being new taxpayers. The NBR chairman hopes the fair will bring about 10,000 more TIN registrations.

Responding to a query, Hussain said the NBR through a survey found that 138,000 homeowners and businesses, mainly in Dhaka and Chittagong, do not have any TIN. Of them, 73,000 are homeowners.

"They are the potential taxpayers—we have already asked them to register."

He expects this year's fair in Dhaka, where it will be held at Officers Club, to attract 5 lakh taxpayers, enabling the authority to logTk 1,100 crore in revenue.

The showcase raked in Tk 838 crore from the divisional cities and 19 districts last year, which is double the previous year's collection ofTk 414 crore during the fair.

Attaining theTk 136,000 crore collection target for this fiscal year will be challenging, Hussain said. "But we will do our best to achieve the target."

The revenue authority will also promote electronic payment of taxes at the fair.