NBR to devise sustainable fiscal policies from next year

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) will consider formulating sustainable fiscal policies from next year for facilitating investors to prepare their investment plan, said the NBR chairman on Wednesday.

Many of the local and foreign investors remain confused following frequent changes to the tax policies, said Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, also senior secretary to the Internal Resources Division (IRD).

"We will try to prepare long-term tax policies, so that these can be continued for (at least) a few years."

He said this at the inauguration ceremony of a two-day post-budget refreshers training on fiscal law 2018-19.

Bangladesh Tax Training Institute (BTTI) organised the programme at Institute of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh, in the city.

"The revenue board could not execute many of its planned measures in the budget for the current fiscal year (FY), 2018-19, as it is the national election year," the NBR chairman said.

In the election year, the government did not introduce any measure that might create controversies.

Next year, NBR will try to carry out some experiments in the fiscal measures, he added.

Mr Bhuiyan also opined that the existing tax-free ceiling for individual taxpayers is a perfect one, considering the thresholds of other developed countries.

In the budget, the government has reduced the corporate tax rates for the banks. Next year, it will try to rationalise tax for the taxpayers, who are paying corporate tax at the rates of 35 per cent and 25 per cent, he noted.

Of the revenue shortfall, worth Tk 200 billion against the revised target in the just-concluded FY, the NBR chief said the revenue board has compiled the figure on the basis of the revenue that was deposited in the government treasury.

"NBR did not compile any inflated revenue collection data on the basis of expected tax collection."

According to the provisional data of NBR, the tax revenue collection grew by 19.50 per cent in FY 2017-18 over that of the corresponding year.

Explaining the reasons behind missing the target, the NBR chairman said the tax revenue collection target was 'too ambitious'.

However, he supported the government's strategy to set such an ambitious target to gear up the taxmen's efforts (for collecting more tax).

He also expected that the flow of tax revenue collection and economic activities will remain smooth in the election year.

BTTI adviser Shymol Kanti Ghosh chaired the inauguration ceremony.

Senior and former members of NBR, among others, spoke at the programme.

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