Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Election Commission (EC) have signed an agreement to share data of the national identity (NID) card holders and prevent tax evasion by crosschecking TIN (taxpayers’ identification number), officials said.
NBR first secretary Badiul Alam and EC deputy secretary (identity registration cell) Mohsin Ali signed the deal on behalf of their respective organizations in the capital Dhaka on Wednesday.
Under the deal, the NBR will be able to directly verify information of an applicant seeking TIN from the EC database for the next 10 years.
There are more than 3.0 million TIN-holders in the country, but less than 1.0 million pay tax now, according to the NBR. The EC has a database of 86 million voters.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) A T M Shamsul Huda, election commissioners M Sohul Hussain and Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain, and NBR Chairman Nasir Uddin were, among others, present on the occasion.
The NBR officials said the data sharing with the EC will help the income tax department get an actual picture of the TIN holders.
A number of TIN holders use false address to obtain the number for specific purposes. It becomes difficult for the taxmen to find out those fake TIN holders, as many people take several TINs, a senior tax official said.
Under the deal, the taxmen can now delete or follow up those TINs by using the EC database. As a result, the number of fake TIN holders will come down significantly, he noted.
BBN/SSR/AD-26Jan12-11:05 am (BST)
