Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) President Ashraf Ahmed said that there is no alternative to automation to increase revenue. At the same time, the joint tax commissioners of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Wakil Ahmed and Murad Ahmed, urged the businessmen to come forward to use the e-TDS system at a higher rate.
They made this call at the workshop titled ‘Income Tax Act 2023: Corporate Tax Challenges and Opportunities’ held at DCCI Auditorium on Saturday, January 13. The workshop briefed the participants on the new tax law.
Snehashish Barua, Advisor, Standing Committee on Customs, VAT and Taxation DCCI presented the keynote at the workshop. National Board of Revenue Joint Commissioner (Tax Zone-15) Wakil Ahmed, Joint Commissioner (Tax Zone-4) Murad Ahmed and Second Secretary (Tax Education) Bapan Chandra Das also spoke.
Members of the Dhaka Chamber’s Board of Directors were present at the workshop. About 70 representatives of member organizations of Dhaka Chamber also participated in this workshop.
In the post-workshop discussion, Dhaka Chamber President Ashraf Ahmed expressed the view that there is a provision of considering tax deducted or collected at source as minimum tax as per section 163(2)(b) of the ‘Income Tax Act-2023’, which is actually increasing the rate of corporate tax. He said, the rate of taxpayers in proportion to the total population of our country is very low. In this country of 17 crore people, only 40 lakh people pay taxes, which is not at all desirable and this low rate of taxation creates additional pressure on the existing tax payers.
The DCCI President also said that if the existing revenue payment process can be brought under complete automation, the harassment of individual tax payers as well as traders will be reduced, and the tax net will be further expanded by involving potential new tax payers in this process.
Also, National Board of Revenue (NBR) Joint Commissioner (Tax Zone-15) Wakil Ahmed said that in 2023, more than 4 lakh taxpayers have paid taxes through the use of e-TIN services. Last year this number was 2 lakh 50 thousand, which shows that the process of automation is playing an important role in creating a tax friendly environment.
On the other hand, NBR Joint Commissioner (Tax Zone-4) Murad Ahmed urged the businessmen to come forward to use the e-TDS system at a higher rate.