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NBR felicitates top taxpayers

Star Business Report
The National Board of Revenue yesterday honoured 402 top and long-term taxpayers amid calls for a harassment-free atmosphere and accountability of taxmen to boost the tax receipts.
“We want to pay tax but we need the right environment for that,’ Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
He said many people shy away from paying tax fearing they might be harassed for giving lower taxes the next year due to a drop in their income.
“You will get increasing amounts of tax if you have a service-providing mentality. Please hire taxmen who will have that mentality,” said Ahmed, also the chairman of Standard Bank, which received a tax card for sealing a spot among the top 10 taxpaying companies nationally for fiscal 2012-13 and 2013-14.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith handed out the tax cards to 20 individuals and 20 companies that paid the highest amount of taxes to the state coffers in fiscal 2012-13 and 2013-14, at an event at the capital's Sonargaon Hotel. Outside Dhaka, 362 taxpayers from 64 districts and nine city corporations in two categories -- long-time and highest - were awarded.
Felicitation of the top taxpayers was part of the Income Tax Day agenda, observed by the NBR yesterday across the country to create awareness and motivate people to pay tax for financing the state expenses.
The NBR, which has been observing the day since 2008, organised rallies in divisional cities to mark the day.
'It is a matter of pride to be a top taxpayer. I feel good and hope that there will
be competition for the recognition/ the Standard Bank chairman said, adding that it is everyone's moral obligation to pay tax if they have taxable incomes. Ahmed went on to praise the tax authority for extending tax-related services to taxpayers by way of the fairs.
Gazi Golam Dastagir, one of the top ten individual taxpayers, suggested taxmen go all the way to upazila level to expand the tax net.
He also said people do not want to register their names on the list of taxpayers as revenue officials chase them repeatedly.
Muhith said harassment in tax collection and fear of paying tax still prevail, although efforts are ongoing to reduce taxpayers' hassles.
However, there has been some progress over the past decade in ensuring clientfriendly behaviour. "We are seeing the benefits of that - we are collecting more taxes."
Starting today, the NBR will hold week-long tax fairs in Dhaka and other divisional cities and for four days at the district level.
At the fair, NBR officials will assist taxpay-ers with online registration and reregistration of taxpayers identification numbers (TIN) and respond to queries regarding changes in various provisions of income tax laws made during the passage of the fiscal 2014-15 budget.
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