No income? Must still pay minimum Tk2,000 tax to collect return

The government has proposed a minimum Tk2,000 tax on individuals who will file tax returns even if they do not have taxable income.

During his budget speech for FY24 yesterday, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said, "I propose imposing a minimum tax of Tk2,000 for competent people whose earnings are below taxable income but have an obligation to submit income tax returns to take services from the government with a view to circulate this participation into government welfare work."

"One of the responsibilities of a citizen is to ensure their participation in the government's welfare work by paying the minimum tax in return of the privileges provided to them by the state," he added.

As per budget dockets, the minimum tax for a taxpayer, except company taxpayers, residing in Dhaka North City Corporation, Dhaka South City Corporation and Chattogram City Corporation will remain unchanged at Tk5,000. The figures for any other city corporation will be Tk4,000 and for other areas Tk3,000. The government aims to maintain this structure of minimum tax unchanged for the next year.

According to the National Board of Revenue, currently there are around 88 lakh individual tax identification number (TIN) holders, but only 32 lakh of them submit tax returns, indicating that they declare their income, expenses, and pay taxes accordingly.

Among the individuals who submit tax returns, approximately eight lakh do not have taxable income. If these eight lakh individuals are made to pay the minimum tax of Tk2,000, the government will generate an additional revenue of Tk160 crore.

Applying the minimum tax to all the TIN holders except those who have already been paying taxes will generate around Tk1,280 crore additional revenue.

BUDGET FY2024 / Bangladesh National Budget 2023-24