60% e-return filers show no taxable income: Salehuddin

Some 60 percent of people who filed e-returns reported no taxable income, former finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed said yesterday, describing the finding from his tenure under the interim government.

“Can you imagine that 60 percent of people do not have Tk 3,50,000 in income?” he said, referring to the individual tax-free ceiling during his tenure.

He noted the figure was surprising given that even rickshaw pullers often earn around that threshold. The former interim government adviser identified  the people’s reluctance to file taxes as a major cause for poor tax collection by the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

The former adviser was speaking at a seminar on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2026-27, organised by the Department of Economics under the School of Business and Entrepreneurship (SBE) of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) at the university’s auditorium.

He also said the poor tax collection was compounded by resistance within the NBR to automation and digitisation whenever the government wants to increase the tax collection through these processes.

The real incentive, the former adviser suggested, was that if taxpayers visit the NBR office, officials can take bribe that would not occur under digital systems.

Speaking about recovering money laundered abroad during the previous regimes, he said 11 sensitive cases were identified during the interim government’s tenure and that recovery was possible within three to four years.

He also said Indian conglomerate Adani had nearly halted electricity supply to Bangladesh during his time, but continued after the finance ministry paid Tk 100 crore through the energy ministry.

He also criticised the contractual terms of both the Adani and Rampal power plant agreements.

On the proposed budget for FY27, Salehuddin said an expansionary budget with a deficit of 3.6 percent of GDP was not unreasonable given the political government’s mandate.

However, he flagged the NBR’s revenue target as overly ambitious given existing capacity and tax structure constraints.

“If we look at the challenges of the budget, resource mobilisation is a major one. The target given to the NBR is quite ambitious – about Tk700,000 crore. Given the capacity, tax structure, and their mandate for collecting taxes, it will be very difficult in one year to increase the tax,” he said.

He welcomed the government’s prioritised allocation for social sectors like education, health and social security.

But he cautioned that allocation doesn’t always lead to expenditure. “Allocation is not enough; the government must ensure capacity and be able to monitor the allocation”

Addressing the seminar as a panellist, Shamsuddin Ahmad, former senior financial sector specialist with the World Bank, suggested recruiting an adequate number of energy auditors to save the energy cost and ensure transparency in the energy sector.

Efficient energy use and pricing is related to development of the country, he said.

Among others, Ijaz Hossain, energy and sustainable development expert and a former Buet professor, and Md Fardous Alom, joint secretary of the Ministry of Finance, also spoke at the event moderated by Shahriar Kabir, professor of Economics at IUB.