State Minister, Ministry of Planning Professor Dr. Shamsul Alam said the government is pledge bound to overhaul the Income tax law in order to facilitate the ease of doing business and reduce cost of doing business and reduction of corruption.
Addressing a webinar styled as “Evaluation of Draft Income Tax Law” on Saturday, Prof. Sgamsul Alam also said that the country's taxpayers had long been demanding to update the Income tax law as well. International Business Forum of Bangladesh (IBFB) organised the webinar. Shamsul Alam joined the webinar as Chief Guest while Marc Shiman, Chief of Party of Feed the Future Bangladesh joined as Guest of Honor. Dr. Muhammad Abdul Mazid, Former Secretary and Ex- Chairman, NBR & Chairman, Finance Committee of IBFB presented the key note paper in the webinar. M.S. Siddiqui, Legal Economist & Vice President, International Business Forum of Bangladesh (IBFB), A.F. Hassan Ariff, member, IBFB, Senior Advocate, former Attorney General of Bangladesh and former Advisor of Caretaker Government, Professor Dr. Mohammad Tareq, Department of Accounting & Information Systems University of Dhaka and Md. Alamgir Hossain, Former Member, National Board of Revenue (NBR) spoke as Designated Discussants. Humayun Rashid, President, IBFB & Managing Director & CEO, Energypac Power Generation Ltd., presided over the ceremony.
IBFB Vice President, M.S. Siddiqui said that the draft law proposed to keep the provision unchanged and virtually will make the tribunal a part of the NBR. Government will nominate members from Commissioners, Chartered Accountants, Costs & Management Accountant, practicing lawyers and retired or in service District Judges.
The members will be minimum 3 and Government will nominate any of the members at Chairman of the tribunal. The responsibility is for a certain period not a permanent responsibility.
As for example. In India, Section 252 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 provides that the Central Government shall constitute an Appellate Tribunal consisting of as many Judicial Members and Accountant Members as it thinks fit. Subsequently India has passed the National Tax Tribunal Act 2005. The Chairman and Members are appointed on permanently on regular not for certain period so that the government unable to influence the members of the tribunal.
There is a proposed provision of ADR in the Section 291 about mutual agreement between representee. There will be a Facilitator who will right down the points of agreement. The provision of ADR should be more detailed.
The ADR in the existing law is not successful as the representative of NBR hardly come to an agreement for reduction of revenue of the government. ADR will remain ineffective without a major change the law and policy.
Speakers mentioned that more than 90% of the tax collected by other government and businesses and individual in the form of deduction at sources. Tax deduction at source (TDS) refers to claims made to reduce your taxable income, arising from various investments and expenses incurred by a taxpayer.
Mentioning that the section 78 of the draft law has empowered NBR to amend 6th schedule and to deduct, reduce and exempt tax of the assesses, they said it means NBR will have similar authority which is prerogative of the Parliament to exempt or reduce the taxes without referring to the Parliament. It is going beyond the constitution.
