The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to run a check on the tax payment of foreign workers in the garment factories in Bangladesh. The board has asked its field officers to prepare a list of workers who are illegally working in the country without paying tax to the Government.
The Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) is one of the Government agencies which approves work permit for foreigners to work in Bangladesh. Of the estimated 400,000 foreigners employed in Bangladesh, only 12,000 of them file their tax returns every year, according to Dhaka Tribune report.
NBR has ordered its officials to run a special check on the foreigners to ensure they pay their tax, in order to boost the revenue collection for the current year. It has also asked the employers to make the foreign employees to go through the tax payment details when they are given a job in the company.
According to the Income Tax Ordinance-1984, a foreign national needs to open tax file, if he or she lives in the country for 90 days in a year. They also need to present their tax clearance certificates from NBR while crossing the immigration check posts before leaving the country.
Earlier, a working foreign national having work permit would have to pay 25 percent of his/her salary as income tax, which was raised to 30 percent per year, effective from July 1, 2014.
There are currently three tax circles, one in Dhaka and two in Chittagong to collect income tax from foreigners.
Citizens mostly from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, South Korea, and some European and African countries are working in Bangladesh, according to reports from NBR.
