DHAKA: With the slogan of ‘Aykore prabriddhi, desh o dosher samriddhi’ (growth in income tax, prosperity in country) the 5th National Income Tax Fair is going on across the country.

The fair, organized by National Board of Revenue (NBR), aims to sweep away the fear regarding income tax from people’s mind.

The weeklong fair that began on September 16 across the country, will be concluded on September 22.

As the fair aims to provide hassle-free service to the income taxpayers, it has gradually been lively with the presence of the visitors.

The number of income taxpayers has increased from 60,512 to 544,633 persons.

NBR sources said that the income tax fair was first arranged in Dhaka and Chittagong in 2010. It collected Tk 113 crore as income tax. A total of 5,638 persons collected their TIN numbers and 52,544 persons submitted their income tax return.

Sources said that being encouraged by the previous fairs, the organizers extended it to seven divisional headquarters in 2011. A total of 75,120 persons took the service during the fair.

The organizers collected Tk 414 crore from the fair.

The organizers arranged it in 10 district towns along with the seven divisional headquarters in 2012 to attract more income taxpayers.

The fair collected Tk 831 crore.

In 2013, NBR introduced e-TIN registration and re-registration that attracted more people to get the service.

The fair provided One-stop Service at the fairground and made it countrywide.

For the first time, the fair collected Tk over 1,117 crore.

With the experience of previous years, NBR organized weeklong income tax fair in seven divisional headquarters, 4-day for 61 district towns and 2-day for three Chittagong Hill Tracts towns in 2014.

Till Sunday, NBR collected Tk over 1,315 crore.

According to the NBR data, over five lakh and 44 thousand people have got the service from the fair. Among them, over one lakh people submitted their income-tax return and over 12 thousand people registered their names as new taxpayers.

NBR member and also National Income Tax Fair Committee chairman Bashir Uddin Ahmed thinks that this success is a reflection of the awareness of the taxpayers across the country.

He said that there is no hassle in the fair. People went to pay tax from their own responsibilities.

He also claimed that people have thronged the fairground as they have created a friendly environment for them.

BDST: 1406 HRS, SEP 22, 2014