Dhaka: The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has started gathering up-to-date information of companies that are registered under the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) with an aim to boost the revenue collection.

The country’s central authority for tax administration has taken the move as it thinks there are some scopes of increasing the revenue collection in this way.

Apart from taking information of the registered companies such as date of registration, the NBR will collect the data about their directors, addresses and tax identification numbers (TINs).

‘We’re hoping for a significant tax collection in this way,’ a senior NBR official told UNB.

Currently, there are 47,434 RJSC enlisted companies across the country while 21,650 companies submitted their income tax statements in 2014-15 fiscal.

The RJSC is the sole authority which facilitates formation of companies and keeps track of all ownership-related issues as prescribed by the laws in Bangladesh.

According to the RJSC, the number of registered companies under the organisation is 128,000 where 45,000 companies took electronic tax identification number (e-TIN). Of the e-TIN holders, 21,650 companies have submitted their income tax statements.

There are some 27 areas where TIN is mandatory. TIN certificates are needed for opening letter of credit (L/C) for import, renewal of trade licence and car registration or renewal of registration, submitting tender documents for supply of goods or any contract, application for membership of a club registered under the Company Act, 1994, registration for purchase of land, building an apartment, deed value of which exceeds Tk 0.1 million, sanction of loan exceeding Tk 0.5 million to a person by commercial bank or leasing company.

TINs are also required for getting credit card, ISD connection to any kind of telephone, being director of a company or sponsor shareholder of a company, renewal of membership of any trade body, issuance of drug licence, submitting a plan for construction of building for obtaining approval from Rajuk, CDA, KDA, and RDA, application for gas and electricity connection for commercial purpose in a city corporation, municipality or cantonment board, submitting nomination forms for any election in upazila, municipality, city corporation or Jatiya Sangsad.

As per the Income Tax Ordinance, the submission of income tax return is must for all TIN or e-TIN holders.

According to the 16CCC of the Ordinance, the company level taxpayers have to pay 0.30 percent tax irrespective of profit or loss.

The NBR official said many company owners took the e-TINs or TINs for various business purposes, including taking bank loan and opening LC.

‘But they later don’t bother to pay tax or submit their income tax statements and sometimes they shut down their companies,’ he said.

According to official data, the number of TIN or e-TIN holders in the country is 1,861,682. Of them 1,776,401 are individual taxpayers.

In the 2014-15 fiscal year, some 1,040,354 people submitted their income tax returns while the number of companies submitting tax returns is 23,011.

The NBR has got a gigantic target of collecting Tk 176,370 crore as revenue for the fiscal year 2015-16 against Tk 135,028 last year.

This year, the target was set to collect Tk 64,971 crore as income tax, while Tk 64,262 crore as VAT and Tk 18,752 as import duty. The target for export duty has been fixed at Tk 37 crore while excise duty at Tk 1,239 crore and supplementary duty at Tk 25,875.