INCOME TAX PAYMENT : NBR opposes govt body advice for mandatory treasury challan use [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

INCOME TAX PAYMENT : NBR opposes govt body advice for mandatory treasury challan use

Local November 22, 2015

A high-powered government committee wants to make the use of treasury challan mandatory for paying income tax to ensure timely collection of taxes and remove mismatch in revenue collection data, finance ministry officials said.
The National Board of Revenue, however, has expressed its reservation about the proposal apprehending that taxpayers would face complexities in paying taxes.
Currently, taxpayers can pay taxes through pay order and account payee check of the commercial banks along with treasury challan (a prescribed form used in depositing any government fee or tax).
The cash and debt management committee of the finance ministry has recently asked the NBR to assess the possibility of reintroduction of the provision of tax payment only through treasury challan, scrapping the scope for tax payment through pay order and account payee check.
It has also asked the revenue board to place a report before the committee which is headed by the finance secretary.
Finance ministry officials said the government does not receive its revenue immediately after taxpayers make the payment through pay order and bank check due to procedural delays.
Sometimes, taxes are deposited even several months after payment by taxpayers that benefits the commercial banks as they hold the money during the period.
It also creates mismatch between the account of revenue collection maintained by the NBR and that of the Office of the Controller General of Accounts.
The CGA office assesses revenue collection after getting treasury challan while the revenue board maintains the account calculating the amount paid through treasury challan, pay order and bank check.
‘The government would get the tax money instantly if the taxpayers make the payment through treasury challan,’ a senior official of the finance ministry told New Age on Wednesday.
When the taxpayers pay taxes through pay order or bank check, it takes time to be deposited in the government exchequer, he said.
Taxpayers attach the pay order and check with the income tax returns and submit those to the deputy commissioners of taxes, he explained.
The DCT then prepares treasury challan against each pay order and bank check, and deposits those in Sonali Bank.
Sonali Bank then collects the tax amount from the respective commercial banks, he said.
Sometimes, it takes months as a DCT has to prepare treasury challan against hundreds of pay orders and checks along with discharging his or her other regular duties.
NBR officials said most of the income tax payers pay taxes through pay order and check as they can make payment the highest Tk 10,000 through treasury challan.
In its opinion sent to the CDMC, the revenue board said that the committee should take the final decision on the issue after careful examination on whether it would create any further complexity due to scrapping of the provision of tax payment through pay order and check.
It said the government in 2003 introduced the provision allowing taxpayers to pay income tax through pay order and account payee check to ease tax payment procedure.
The government took the decision to prevent forgery in tax payment through treasury challan after it had detected many false treasury challan with fake seal and sign of banks and their officials, it said.
Carrying huge volume of cash money to banks for depositing through treasury challan is also risky for taxpayers, it said.
There is no scope for fraudulence in tax payment through pay order and bank check, it said adding that the government should remove the procedural problems and delays, if there is any, in tax payment through pay order and check.