
National Board of Revenue chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan on Monday said that the government would try to introduce single rate VAT system in the country in a bid to reduce leakage in revenue collection.聽
鈥業t鈥檒l be better for us if we can go for a single rate VAT to reduce the leakage in revenue collection and it will also be very easy to administer. Definitely we鈥檒l try for that,鈥� he said.聽
The revenue board chief said this while addressing a press conference on the occasion of VAT Day 2024 at the conference room of the NBR in the capital Dhaka.聽
The theme of this year鈥檚 VAT Day is 鈥榃e all will pay VAT and take participation in development鈥�.聽
Abdur said that NBR would try to scrap the VAT exemption gradually to improve the VAT collection. 鈥楤ut, it does not mean that this has to be done right now. We鈥檒l do that in consultation with the stakeholders,鈥� he said.聽聽
He said that the NBR would supervise the VAT net and would also bring those who were now currently outside the VAT net.
鈥榃e鈥檝e to expand our tax net at the quickest possible time. If we can expand the VAT net, then we鈥檒l be able to reduce the revenue collection gap that already took place in the first five months of the current financial year,鈥� he said.聽
The NBR chairman said that the country was now going through some tough economic time. 鈥業f we want to recover our country from this economic situation and thus advance further, we don鈥檛 have any other option.鈥櫬�
Asking the VAT officials to work with utmost honesty and sincerity, Abdur said that for the sake of the welfare of the mass people, the government had waived various types of taxes.聽
鈥楢s a result, the revenue collection has suffered in the last couple of months. So, there is no alternative to reducing the tax waiver,鈥櫬爃e said.
He said that whenever the economic situation of the country improved, then it had to try to increase the revenue collection.
鈥榃e鈥檙e going towards that direction. We鈥檒l rationalise the tax waiver, we鈥檝e already started our job. Already we鈥檝e scrapped some SROs and some others are in the pipeline,鈥� he added.聽
The NBR chairman reiterated his call to get rid of the culture of tax exemption, adding, 鈥極therwise, we won鈥檛 be able to increase our revenue collection.鈥櫬�
In his introductory speech, the NBR chairman also said that an initiative had been taken to build a robust VAT system to provide all VAT services by making the VAT system completely online and while sitting at home.聽
He mentioned that the NBR was gradually adopting the online system from the paper system. In addition to simplifying the VAT registration, filing and VAT payment procedures, activities have been undertaken to motivate the stakeholders and introduce automation in all stages of work.聽
Already, the VAT registration, filing and VAT payment system has been automated.聽
鈥榃e鈥檙e currently trying to introduce the e-invoice system to build a flawless VAT system,鈥� he added.聽
Md Abdur Rahman Khan, also secretary of the Internal Resources Division, said that various public welfare-oriented activities had been taken, including providing various types of exemptions for the convenience of the general consumers, reducing the VAT rate on various daily essentials such as sugar, eggs, potatoes and edible oil in the context of the current reality, and withdrawing excise duty on hajj passenger tickets.聽
He said that the NBR was committed to creating a business-friendly environment and building a strong tax culture through timely reforms by involving consumers, traders and industrial owners from all walks of life in the country and above all, and to materialising the dream of building Bangladesh without discrimination.聽
鈥楾he success of the VAT system depends on the widespread participation of stakeholders. It is hoped that all these promotional activities will be quite helpful in building a tax culture in the country, which will contribute to increasing VAT collection in the future,鈥� he said.
The NBR chairman said that the desired development would be achieved in its continuation. 鈥榃e鈥檒l become a happy, beautiful and prosperous country.鈥�