A parliamentary committee yesterday expressed disappointment over appointments of 400 inspectors to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), who do not even have the required minimum qualification for the job.
The parliamentary watchdog body also asked ministries concerned to resolve a pending legal issue that has been keeping NBR from recruiting new inspectors.
Elaborating on the matter, chairman of the committee AHM Mostafa Kamal said some former NBR inspectors had filed cases with the High Court about 20 years ago, protesting their firings from the job. The court subsequently directed NBR to refrain from appointing new inspectors till the matter is resolved.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance however lauded the country’s central authority for tax administration for achieving its revenue collection target in July this year.
“About 400 NBR inspectors don’t even have the required minimum qualification. Nevertheless, they are working there, as it could not recruit fresh inspectors due to a legal bar,” Mostafa Kamal, who is also a ruling Awami League lawmaker, told reporters after the committee’s meeting in Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
He said about 1,100 posts of inspectors are laying vacant at NBR, hampering its performance.
The situation is so bad due to the lack of manpower that NBR might become dysfunctional if the status quo persists, he added.
“The committee asked the law and finance ministries and other authorities concerned to take measures to resolve all legal issues pending with the High Court, and to recruit fresh inspectors to NBR,” he added.
The committee also asked NBR to resolve the legal issues through negotiations with the plaintiffs.
Mostafa Kamal said revenue collection target of NBR has been increasing every year, but its manpower still remains more or less the same as it was in 1990, as only a very few officials were recruited to the tax administration authority since that time.
On achieving revenue collection targets, the parliamentary committee chief said NBR collected Tk 3,655 crore of its Tk 3,689 crore target in July this year.
He also said different individuals and firms owe NBR Tk 3,500 crore, but the board has not been able to realise the amount from them so far, due to pending lawsuits.
“We asked the authorities concerned to increase benches at the court for adjudicating the cases fast, so the money could be recovered,” he said.
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