The revenue officials have strongly opposed the recent proposal of the deputy commissioners (DCs) under administration cadre to involve them in the government’s tax revenue collection process. Both BCS taxation and customs and VAT associations, in a statement on Thursday, expressed their deep concern and also sought attention of the policy-makers over the issue. They have termed the DCs’ proposal ‘illogical,’ ‘beyond jurisdiction’ and ‘baseless’. The field-level admin cadre officials gave the proposal at the recent DC conference, held in the city on July 14-18. In the conference, the DCs and Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNO) expressed their willingness to look over the government’s revenue collection activities by forming committees in district and upazila levels. In the statement, the BCS taxation and customs and VAT association leaders said the revenue collection process might be disrupted with the intervention of admin cadre officials. BCS taxation association President Md Selim Afzal and Secretary General Md Nuruzzaman Khan, and BCS customs and VAT association President Khondoker Md Aminur Rahman and Secretary General Syed Mushfequr Rahman jointly signed the statement. The association leaders also feared resentments among the National Board of Revenue (NBR) officials regarding the issue. According to the government’s rules of business, taxation and customs and VAT officials are empowered to collect revenue and frame necessary policies. It should be scrutinised whether or not there is any ill motive (behind the DCs’ proposal) to create unrest among the NBR officials, who are contributing to (collection of) 88 per cent of the internal revenue, the statement mentioned. The government has created some 28 cadres for its officials, and has clearly defined working area of each cadre. “BCS taxation and customs and VAT associations assume that (implementation of) such a proposal will tarnish confidence of the tax, VAT and customs officials,” it noted. The leaders said there is huge mismanagement in land revenue collection system that has been supervised by the admin cadre officials. “It is intentional, as the admin cadre officials are willing to take a new task rather than improving their land revenue collection system,” the statement added. Under the existing VAT and income tax law, the admin cadre officials are empowered to deduct withholding tax from different service-seekers and deposit it to the public exchequer. The association leaders opined that the admin officials should concentrate on that task for overall betterment of the country.
Source – Financial Express.
