Chairman of NBR Md Abdur Rahman Khan today spoke at the conference room of Revenue Building in the capital’s Agargaon. Photo : PID

DHAKA, March 19, 2025 (BSS)- The government is eager to boost revenue collection through ensuring governance with increasing tax compliance and containing tax evasion, said Chairman of National Board of Revenue (NBR)Md Abdur Rahman Khan here today.

“Not by increasing the tax rate, this is our thumb rule,” he said while speaking at a pre-budget meeting at the conference room of Revenue Building in the capital’s Agargaon area.

He said that tax burden would not increase anymore in this budget while they are trying to minimize it.

The NBR chairman said it is a challenging task to strike a balance between tax collection and facilitating business and trade.

Asking all to maintain tax compliance strictly, he said that the cost of non-compliance is very high.

“You’ll be in great problem if you’re not maintaining the tax compliance properly,” he said.

Regarding the use of counterfeit band-rolls by a section of Bidi producers, Abdur Rahman Khan said that recently fake band-rolls of some Taka 300 crore were seized in Manikganj.

“Why you’re doing this? Tax on Bidi is comparatively low as it is 56 percent while the rate is 82 percent on cigarettes, you will have to pay big price for revenue evasion,” he warned.

In this connection, the NBR chairman said that there would be no option left before the NBR except enacting tougher law if the Bidi factory owners failed to shun their tax evasion tendency.

“It’ll be tough for you to continue your business, please keep it in your mind. If we find one piece fake band-roll in future, we’ll take stern action, if necessary, we’ll enact fresh law,” he said.

When his attention was drawn on imposing higher tax on importing materials by the customs officials which was actually imported on lower price, the revenue board chief asked the customs officials to be more cautious about it.

“Over invoicing is dangerous than the under invoicing, because through under invoicing you might get lower duties, but by the over invoicing foreign exchange drains out from the country alarmingly and it helps smuggling out money,” he said.

He also asked the VAT Officials to prepare their mindset for collecting VAT in a wider scale and by not imposing supplementary duty.

Abdur Rahman Khan regretted that the state of income tax and VAT is very poor in the country.

“The amount we’re supposed to get from income tax and VAT, we’re not even nearby to that amount,” he said.

He again said that if the business people come to a consensus on a single rate of VAT, then the NBR is ready to lower the VAT rate.