DHAKA, Aug 29, 2025 (BSS) - The National Board of Revenue (NBR) held separate review meetings yesterday on the revenue collection progress of its Customs, VAT, and Income Tax wings for the month of July of the current fiscal year (FY26).

The meetings were presided over by Md. Abdur Rahman Khan, Secretary of the Internal Resources Division and Chairman of the NBR, at the NBR conference room in the capital.

While reviewing the performance of the Customs and VAT wings, the NBR Chairman emphasized that the main focus must be ensuring trade facilitation while enforcing existing laws effectively to achieve desired revenue targets, said an NBR press release today.

He advised against unnecessarily locking importers' or exporters' BINs out of suspicion, suggesting instead that risk-based assessments should be carried out using past records stored in the ASYCUDA system. "Genuine and compliant importers-exporters must not be harassed," he stressed.

All customs houses and intelligence offices have been instructed to provide clear explanations in monthly revenue meetings on why BINs were locked and how much additional revenue was realized from such actions. 

The Chairman also directed that VAT must be collected strictly in accordance with the law, rather than pressuring compliant businesses. Instead, efforts must focus on bringing non-payers under the VAT net and taking punitive measures against VAT evaders. Moreover, businesses legally required obtaining VAT registration and it must be ensured to do so.

To enhance automation, the Chairman instructed that within the next month all bond-related activities must be made mandatory online, with clear timelines set for each service. Officials failing to provide services within the stipulated timeframe will be held accountable. 

Rahman further directed that if goods imported under bond facilities are found in the open market, the importer's bond license should be immediately cancelled, and any officials found involved in misuse of bond facilities will face legal action. 

Commissioners were also asked to present updates in every monthly meeting. Customs houses have additionally been directed to expedite auction processes to reduce container congestion, with old containers at ports to be disposed of through auction by December 2025.
On the Income Tax wing's performance, the NBR Chairman advised deploying adequate manpower in all commissionerates to assist taxpayers in filing e-returns and ensuring round-the-clock support through call centres. 

He instructed establishing full integration between the eTIN and eTDS systems so that taxpayers' data and jurisdiction are automatically updated.

He called for vigorous efforts to collect arrear taxes by fully applying existing laws, expediting resolution of pending audit cases, and creating tax demands through audits. 

While initiatives for automated and transparent audit selection for individual taxpayers are already underway, he emphasized the urgent need to extend the same system to corporate taxpayers.

The Chairman also instructed that all TIN holders who fail to file income tax returns must be issued notices, with their income, expenditure, and assets verified through investigation, and tax imposed and collected accordingly. Each tax zone has been directed to enhance intelligence operations to uncover tax evasion and speed up return processing under the Income Tax Act.

To strengthen oversight, all NBR monitoring members responsible for supervising tax commissioners will meet at least one commissioner weekly, review activities on non-filers, tax evasion detection, return processing, and audit case disposal, and then brief the NBR Chairman separately.

The meetings were attended by all commissioners of the Customs, VAT, and Income Tax wings, as well as members of the NBR. Participants reaffirmed their strong commitment to taking comprehensive measures to boost revenue collection and thus raise the tax-to-GDP ratio.