About 40,000 individual taxpayers of Dhaka will be able to submit their tax returns online from Sunday.
As part of the master plan to bring all taxpayers under an online return submission system, it is initially being introduced in tax zone-8.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith will formally open the system.
Tax zone-8 Commissioner Kalipada Halder told The Daily Star that the introduction would be on an experimental basis. In future, e-payment systems will also be introduced for the taxpayers.
In tax zone-8, doctors, chartered accountants, lawyers, architects and the taxpayers in Gulshan and Banani are included.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) officials said they selected this tax zone initially, as almost all the taxpayers of this zone are educated to some extent.
The official also said to submit tax returns online, a taxpayer needs to have a minimum level of computer literacy.
He said taxpayers could submit their tax returns from home or even abroad. Each taxpayer will have a personal identification number (PIN). The taxpayers will visit the website of tax zone-8 and use the PIN to access their accounts.
The taxpayer will also get information on his tax status.
Although this payment system will not be introduced right now, a taxpayer can send his pay order number online and send the pay order to the tax-zone office by post or any other means later.
The taxpayer would be spared going through the hassles in submitting tax returns personally.
Halder said taxpayers may face some problems initially. If the payer makes a mistake in submitting the returns online in the initial stage, they will get a scope to make corrections later.
The tax commissioner also said there will be a service centre with trained personnel on the ground floor of the office.
If taxpayers need assistance, they can go to the centre and submit returns with the assistance of the staff and also learn the process at the same time.
NBR officials said the software to submit returns online was developed by some local innovative software developers.
He said NBR did not take any donor fund or hire any foreign software firm for the purpose.
However, the problem is that no IT personnel has been appointed in tax zone-8. As a result, the system may fall into a crisis if they face a technological problem once it starts functioning.
An official of the zone said some IT staff members should be appointed there soon.
At an individual level, this is the first time that online return submission is going to take place. At present, there is a scope for that in the Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) at company level.
The introduction of e-payment alongside online tax return submission would not be possible unless Bangladesh Bank, commercial banks and the finance division are not brought under a detailed online network.
NBR and other organisations are working in this regard. Its introduction may be possible soon but no deadline has yet been fixed.
Source: thedailystar.net
