“Incomplete Digitalization Leaves NBR Lacking Essential Data”

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has introduced a new service enabling large-value tax and VAT payments through bKash, transitioning from the e-TDS system to the A-Challan System (ACS). This allows corporate taxpayers to pay taxes anywhere, anytime, without visiting a bank, aiming to make tax collection more transparent and digital.

The service was officially inaugurated on January 11 at NBR’s Agargaon office in Dhaka. The launch event was graced by Md. Abdur Rahman Khan, Secretary of the Internal Resources Division and NBR Chairman, who highlighted the challenges caused by incomplete digitalization. He noted that manual recordkeeping has become obsolete, and without full digitalization, accurate data for policy-making is difficult to obtain.

The NBR Chairman emphasized that efficient digital systems could reduce government expenditure by at least BDT 20,000 crore on printing and management annually, and strengthen online tax collection, potentially increasing overall revenue by around 20%.

bKash CFO Moinuddin Mohammad Rahgir demonstrated that corporate entities can now pay taxes, duties, and government fees in real-time, 24/7, from their workplaces. The platform integrates directly with NBR’s e-TDS, IBAS, Bangladesh Bank, and other government systems, automatically generating digital challans and verifying transactions without the need for paper documentation or manual reconciliation.

The service also introduces a corporate VAT-tax payment solution, enabling organizations to transfer funds from their bank or disbursement wallet to the bKash merchant wallet without extra charges, further simplifying real-time tax payments while enhancing transparency, accountability, and efficiency. The move is also expected to reduce carbon emissions by minimizing paper usage.

DBTech/DMO/PO/IK/OR