A tense situation prevailed at the National Board of Revenue on Saturday amid the presence of a huge number of police, Border Guard Bangladesh and army personnel at the revenue board鈥檚 premises since the morning of the day.
At a press conference held in the afternoon, the officials protesting under the banner of the NBR Sangskar Oikya Parishad said that that they would continue their previously declared 5-day protest programme.
They officials said that they had four demands 鈥� revoking the ordinance on restructuring the revenue administration, removing the current chairman of the NBR, public disclosure of the advisory committee鈥檚 report on NBR reforms, and inclusive, consultative, and sustainable revenue administration reforms.
Edip Billah, additional commissioner (customs), Mostafizur Rahman, deputy commissioner (tax), and Ishtiaque Hossain, assistant commissioner (tax), spoke at the press conference.
According to their fresh programmes announced on May 21, under the banner of their platform, which includes officials from tax, customs, and value-added tax departments, the protesting NBR officials observed complete work abstention at all tax, customs, and VAT offices 鈥� excluding customs houses and land customs stations 鈥� on Saturday and would continue the programme today from 9:00am to 5:00pm.
However, the exports and international passenger services were out of the purview of the protests.
They submitted a memorandum to the interim government chief adviser on May 22, followed by sit-in programmes at NBR offices in Dhaka and across the country.
If their demands are not met by today, they would also call for a complete work stoppage in all relevant offices from tomorrow.
The international passenger services will remain out of the strike鈥檚 purview.
The protesting NBR officials observed a pen-down strike in May 14-15 and May 17-19 and declared the non-cooperation on the sixth day of their protests.
Requesting anonymity, an NBR member told 抖阴精品 that there were no such concerns from their side and that they did not request the government to send forces at the NBR premises.
Earlier on May 12, the interim government promulgated the ordinance dissolving the revenue board and splitting it into two divisions under the finance ministry to modernise the tax administration and boost revenue collection.
The ordinance was approved by president Mohammed Sahabuddin and signed by law secretary Hafiz Ahmed Chowdhury.
The divisions to be created Revenue Policy Division and Revenue Management Division, are in line with the International Monetary Fund鈥檚 key condition of separating tax policy from tax administration.
NBR officials have opposed the decision since the advisory council approved the draft ordinance to split the board in April.