Govt moves to modernise tax admin and boost revenue: Ecnec

The government is set to launch a transformative project titled Strengthening Domestic Revenue Mobilisation Project (SDRMP) aimed at modernising the country's tax administration and boosting internal revenue collection.

The project, spearheaded by the Internal Resources Division and to be implemented by the National Board of Revenue (NBR), has an estimated cost of Tk1,009.20 crore.

Of this, the government of Bangladesh will contribute Tk8.80 crore, while the remaining Tk1,000.40 crore will come as project assistance from the World Bank, according to project documents seen by UNB.

The project was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) today (24 June).

Spanning from July 2025 to June 2030, the project will cover all tax and VAT offices across Bangladesh and the NBR headquarters in Dhaka.

The primary objective of the SDRMP is to enhance the institutional capacity of NBR to increase domestic revenue collection.

Key components of the project include establishment of a strong research and statistics unit, alongside policy analysis and training initiatives, Comprehensive automation reforms in line with NBR's modernisation master plan, Upgradation of digital platforms such as eTIN, eReturn, and eTDS/TCS, and the rollout of new systems like eRevACC, eTLM, eAudit, eTax Office, ETAM, and eSupport, to ensure interoperability and efficient tax administration.

The others are -- Modernization of the VAT system through a new SAP Competency Center, the development of an Integrated VAT Administration System (IVAS), and a national-level e-invoicing system, Introduction of a unified Unique Identification Number for both income tax and VAT, Integration between NBR systems (ASYCUDA World, IVAS) and national platforms like iBAS++, Establishment of an automated call centre for taxpayer support and Launch of a modern e-learning platform for NBR staff and stakeholders.

According to the project papers, development of the government's revenue collection process is very important to support the growth and development of the country through the government's internal resource intelligence.

The country's overall revenue collection has grown at an average rate of 13.5% in the last 16 years. In the last fiscal year 2007, the actual revenue collection was Tk485 billion, which increased to Tk3,666 billion in the fiscal year 2023, i.e., more than 7.5 times growth has been achieved during this period.

In the last five years, despite the economic instability caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war and the shock of the global recession, the average growth in revenue collection was 11.1%.

Bangladesh's revenue collection is very low and this revenue collection is insufficient to meet the development financing needs.

Bangladesh's revenue-to-GDP ratio was 9.1% in the fiscal year 2012, which decreased to 8.5% in the fiscal year 2024.

The tax-to-GDP ratio has decreased to 7.4% in the fiscal year 2024-25, which is significantly lower than the ratio of its South Asian peers.

The proposed project has been designed to improve the capacity of the National Board of Revenue with a view to increasing revenue collection.

The Planning Commission thinks that the project will support the implementation of necessary reform activities to increase revenue collection, including rationalisation of tax expenditure, reduction of compliance gap, expansion of taxpayer base and modernisation of tax administration through complete digitisation and automation of tax administration to expand taxpayer services.