Taxpayer's query
As faithful citizens we are obliged to pay taxes as per laws of the government to enable the latter to carryout the duties entrusted on it. Paying taxes is actually a give-and -take matter. If a citizen finds that his or her basic rights are being well taken care of by the government, then he or she shall come forward to pay the taxes voluntarily or will not feel that the tax-payment is a penalty.
But for some obvious reasons, most of the taxpayers do take it as a burden and look for the ways and means to escape it. The end result is, the concerned department of government miserably fails to achieve the tax collection target. The taxpayers very reasonably expect that the government will fulfil its obligations that clearly indicate that the taxpayers should be compensated to some extent for the money they are paying as taxes through proper healthcare, good transportation networks, improved law and order situation, maintaining high standard in public educational establishments and increasing seats for higher numbers of admission seekers, do away with harassments in getting passport, driving license, quick disposal of court cases and above all the availability of the items of basic needs at affordable costs.
But what is really happening? As for my self, I am serving in a multinational company and paying an income tax of more than taka two lakh a financial year. But I felt discouraged to ask for any assistance from the police when some miscreants broke the garage & stole some valuable parts of my personal car. My driver found those stolen items in a shop at Dholaikhal & I bought those at a cost of about Tk 80,000. This is one example of how we live in Bangladesh. In addition, when we see how the government employees are plundering the state funds/our tax money, our interest evaporates to come forward to pay taxes. The recent news of employing 122 workers to fix a single toilet-pan in a BTCL (formerly BTTB) office is another glaring example of the magnitude and mode of corruption by government bodies.
Only extension of tax return dates will not work to attract the taxpayers, their conviction that the tax money is properly used for the benefit of the citizens is the only motivating factor.
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