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Tax Week sees huge turnout on last day

Star Business Report
The deadline for submitting income tax returns ended yesterday amid a rush of individual taxpayers at the tax offices to complete the formalities for 2016-17.
Tax collection more than doubled to Tk 3,026 crore with submitted returns until yesterday evening. The tax administrator said the amount of collections along with tax returns would go up in the final count.
The amount of collection with
submitted returns was Tk 1,083 crore in July-November of fiscal 2015-16, theNBR said.
Queues of taxpayers were seen at different tax offices to avoid having to pay penalties and face other hassles for missing the deadline.
"We have seen a huge response from good citizens. This response at the Tax Fair and Tax Week gives us the message that taxpayers will not backtrack if we can provide them with an appropriate environment and ease the rules," said National Board of
Revenue Chairman Md Nojibur Rahman in a statement.
A total of 9.72 lakh returns were submitted till 7pm yesterday, up 19 percent from 8.15 lakh on November 30,2015, according to the NBR.
A huge number of taxpayers also sought more time to file their returns.
Nearly five lakh taxpayers registered in the first four months of the current fiscal year, exceeding the target of adding three lakh new taxpayers, said Rahman. The NBR expects that the number of registered taxpayers will exceed the 25-lakh mark. The NBR said the persons who did not submit returns despite having taxable income will be tracked down.
The tax authorities had instructed all the field offices to receive returns as long as taxpayers come and to accept returns without question, to clear the queue in the shortest possible time.
"We are receiving quite a huge number of returns. We are also trying to provide services as fast as possible so that taxpayers do not have to wait for long, ’ said an official.
The rule that mandates returns submission for government officials with a basic salary of Tk 16,000 or higher is one of the reasons behind the huge turnout, said some officials.
This is the first time that NBR observed N ovember 30 as the Tax Day.
'As the deadline for submission is not going to be extended, we will remain open to receive tax returns for as long as taxpayers keep coming," said a deputy commissioner of taxes under tax zone-10.
Bina Rani Dey, a physician at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said, "This time I could finish all the tax related formalities very smoothly. This is really a good experience."
Bina came to the tax office in 2012, but did not find anyone to assist her. This time, she got assistance from the help desks opened by the field offices to observe the Tax Week.
A queue of fresh taxpayers was also seen
at the booths for opening taxpayer identification numbers (TIN).
However, a number of taxpayers said they could not open TINs online, despite several attempts.
"We tried to getTINs online, but we could not enter the site for the last three days,' said Shaheen Akhter, who works at Survey of Bangladesh. She was collecting forms from a booth at tax zone 4 to apply for herTIN.
A number of taxpayers, particularly public sector employees, were also seen rushing to their respective zones to either file returns or to seek more time to do so.
“Some of my colleagues told me yesterday that we may face problems in drawing our salaries if we do not submit returns,' said Taufiqun Nahar, a nurse at Sohrawardy Hospital. He said she was unaware that she had to file return.
“No one from our accounts section informed me earlier," said Nahar, who was preparing her returns at tax zone 4.
To tackle the rush of new taxpayers, the tax officials accepted both TIN applications and tax returns. "We will open the TINs in the taxpayers' name and inform them later," said an official.
Until yesterday afternoon, the number of registered taxpayers rose to 24.2 lakh from above 22 lakh at the beginning of the month, according to the NBR.
Some 12.5 lakh tax returns were submitted in fiscal 2015-16. The number of total returns may exceed 16 lakh by the end of this fiscal year, said Abdur Razzaque, member of tax administration of the NBR.