NBR bags TK1,064 crore in three days. The countrywide ongoing tax fair turned festive on Saturday, a weekend, as hundreds of taxpayers thronged the fair venues to receive tax related services including opening e-TIN, submitting tax returns and paying taxes in a hassle-free environment.
The day was the third day of the weeklong fair that kicked off on November 14 at Officers Club in the capital. Besides, the fairs held at 56 districts and 11 upazilas on the day.
The taxpayers of Dhaka division started gathering on the Officer’s Club premises from 9:00am and long queues were seen throughout the day (till 5:00pm). The fair at other spots across the country was also festive, NBR officials said.
Taxpayers expressed their satisfactions over the services of the tax fair, saying that such an arrangement eased their tax payments.
“The fair is the best place to submit tax returns and paying taxes,” said a taxpayer, Sayed Anwar Hossain, who paid Tk32,383 in taxes at the Officers Club venue.
He thanked the NBR for keeping the fair open even on holiday. “It’s tough for service holders like me to come to the fair on working days,” he added.
“I just came and completed all procedures within a short time,” said Anwar, adding that there was a long queue, but it was completely hassle-free.
Farida Yasmin, another taxpayer said tax officials helped her filing the tax return. “We got all the services at a single venue,” she added.
She appreciated the arrangement of the capital fair, where there are separate booth for women, senior citizen and freedom fighters, along with regular booths for different tax zones.
Besides, there are 49 booths for submitting returns, three bank booths, 2,500 square feet space for filling up the returns, 1,000 sq feet for e-TIN zone and 33 help desks in the Officer’s Club’s fair.
Service providers said they felt inspired when they saw smile on the faces of the taxpayers who got the desired tax-related services.
Tk1064 crore collected in three days
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) bagged Tk262.03 crore on the third day of ongoing country-wide income tax fair, informed an NBR senior official.
It earned Tk1,064.23 crore in the first three days of the fair, a 8.02% rise compared to the same period of the previous year. Las year, the NBR collected around Tk985 crore in the first three days.
A number of 271,940 people received different tax-related services including opening of e-TINs, submitting returns and paying their taxes on the day, the NBR official informed.
Besides, 4,011 people took electronic TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number) on Saturday’s fairs. The number of new TIN opening at the fairs hit 11,989 in the three days.
The revenue board has been arranging the fair since 2010 with an aim to encourage individuals for opening TIN (Taxpayer’s Identification Number), submitting their tax returns, and paying tax in a hassle-free environment..
Open from 9:00am to 5:00pm, the weeklong fair will continue till Wednesday at Officers Club.
This year, the income tax fair is expected to be held at 120 spots across the country, while the fairs have already started at majority spots.
The district-level fairs are scheduled for four days and those of upazila-level for two days in November 14-20 period.
The last date of return submission is November 30.
Fairs at 20 new spots begin today
The fair is scheduled to begin today (Sunday) at 20 new spots. Of them, 8 spots are at district levels – Narsingdi, Habiganj, Thakurgaon, Nilphamari, Bhola, Kushtia, Narail, Magura, and the rest 12 are at upazila level – Keraniganj (Dhaka), Nesarabad (Pirojpur), Patiya and Lohagara (Chittagong), Chhatak (Sunamganj), Sreemangal (Moulvibazar), Valuka and Gafargaon (Mymensingh), Mohadevpur (Naogaon), Bhabaniganj (Rajshahi), Ishwardi (Pabna), Rupganj (Narayanganj).
The district-level fairs will continue till November 20 while those at upazila level will end tomorrow (Monday).
(DT)