Secretary Internal Resources Division and Chairman National Board of Revenue (NBR), Bangladesh, Muhammad Abdul Karim has appreciated the revenue administration reforms measures of Central Board of Revenue (CBR), and said his country would learn and benefit from this experience of Pakistan, especially automation of business process and alternate dispute resolution mechanism.
Karim, who along with a delegation of NBR visited the Lahore Tax Payer Unit (LTU) on Wednesday, said this at a briefing at the Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU), here on Wednesday. The delegation was comprised of Azharul Haq, Commissioner Large Taxpayer Unit; Pervez Iqbal, Commissioner of Taxes and Muhammad Shafiqur Rehman Senior Analyst.
The NBR chief maintained that Pakistan had done a wonderful job in reforms of its tax departments, which had resulted in enhancement of revenue. "Ever since I assumed the charge as NBR chief I have been wondering how Pakistan has been able to undertake reforms in its tax regime while not Bangladesh despite having same environment there," he observed. He said that the example of Pakistan's CBR reforms had been quoted by other countries' dignitaries at many occasions. "However, despite all efforts we have not been able to achieve this task." He said due to tax reforms process, Pakistan resource mobilisation had also improved.
Giving details about the revenue collection of NBR, Karim said, out of total 120 million population, the number of assesses was only 2 million, of which the actual filers were not more than 0.9 million. Tax-to-GDP ratio in Bangladesh was not only lowest in the region but in the world also. "Now our focus is shifting from indirect to direct taxes and our dependence on custom duty has decreased from 45 to 25 percent."
Sharing experience of his visit to Pakistan, he said he was very much impressed by these reforms and he would like to request the CBR officials to help his country in specific areas. "What you have done in automation and your alternate dispute resolution mechanism is really remarkable which has minimised the contact between taxpayers and tax collectors. I would like to replicate this system in Bangladesh."
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