Bangladesh News

On the first day of the special survey to identify new taxpayers, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) yesterday found that 126 shops out of 226 they surveyed at the city’s Bashundhara City Complex have no Tax Identification Number (TIN).

A team led by Asheque Hossain, member of tax survey and inspection, and Mohammad Khorshed Alam, commissioner of taxes, launched the survey aiming to bring all business houses and professionals under the tax net.

The team found no owners present while visiting the 226 shops out of the total 1,600 shops at the mega shopping mall.

They handed over survey forms to the employees of these shops and briefed them on the rules for filling those up. The team also made them aware of the obligation of paying taxes.

Talking to the reporters, Asheque said that they have come to identify the new taxpayers. If any individual or groups who are running shops, offices or business houses are identified as taxpayers, they would have to pay tax from the FY 2007-08, he said.

Khorshed said that they would conduct the survey carefully to avoid all sorts of harassment of any taxpayers during the survey time.

The 15-month survey starts initially in Dhaka and will spread across the country gradually from the next fiscal year. Eight survey teams, each comprising three members, will conduct the survey in the capital.

The sectors to be covered in the NBR survey are: 1. clinics and diagnostic centres, 2. community centres, residential hotels and restaurants, Chinese restaurants and fast food shops, sweetmeat, bakery and confectionery shops, 3. commercially run English/Bangla medium schools and coaching centres, 4. internet and computer centres, 5. beauty parlours, fitness centres and physiotherapy centres, 6. firms of lawyers, physicians, engineers, tax lawyers, chartered accountants, cost and management accountants, and architects, 7. book stalls, book binding shops, printing presses, travel agencies, and advertising firms, 8. machinery shops, grocery shops, general stores, retail shops, and department stores, 9. shopping malls and super markets, 10. thread producers, thread dying, finishing, coning and weaving houses, textiles manufactures, 11. real estate companies and developers, 12. saw mills, rice mills, flour mills, oil mills, and timber traders, 13. tailoring, laundry and sanitary ware shops, and 14. phone-fax and laminating centres, cassette-CD shops etc.