Al Amin :
Proof of Submission of Return (PSR) is going to be mandatory to arrange a marriage party at community centres in the city corporation areas across the country.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has taken the move as part of its initiative of increasing the number of the individual income tax return submission, NBR officials said.
They said there are over 4000 community centres across the country and over 400 centres in Dhaka city. All the centres remain busy with marriage and other functions throughout the year, specially, from November to April.
Despite the organizers of the functions have taxable incomes, many of them don’t pay taxes. Bringing them under tax net, NBR is planning to make mandatory showing of tax slip for arranging the social programmes, the officials said.
Wishing anonymity, an official of the revenue board said, “The PSR has already been made mandatory against 43 government and private services and the wedding ceremony at convention halls in the city areas will be added in the list.”
“We have already directed our officials to show the PSR before booking for such event,” he added.
According to the Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA), around 87 per cent people, who have taxable income, evade taxes per year.
It said that a staggering 87 per cent of the country’s rich and upper middle class people are evading taxes.
Even though one always suspects the number to be high in the Bangladesh context, especially given its poor tax-GDP ratio. The percentage given the BEA shows how alarming the situation is.
On the other hand the centre for policy Dialogue (CPD) estimated that Bangladesh is losing potential taxes from as low as Tk 41,800 crore to as high as Tk 223,000 crore because of tax evasion every year.
The institute of Cost and Management Account of Bangladesh (ICMAB) recently placed a proposal to the NBR for imposing a Tk 50 tax per guests for social events including weddings, which host more than 100 guests and are organized outside one’s houses from the upcoming fiscal year.
“A provision can be introduced to impose Tk 50 advance tax per guest for booking a hotel, restaurant or community centre for wedding, bridal shower, birthday, wedding anniversary or any ther social event other than business purpose,” Abdur Rahman Khan, a member of the ICMAB delegation, proposed.
He also said, “A lot of people do not have any tax files but they spend a huge sum of money on luxurious events. Paying advance tax before booking hotels, restaurants can be a source of revenue.”
The primary objective of ICMAB’s proposal was to widen the country tax net as the country maintains a low tax-GDP ratio of 8 per cent.
