The National Board of Revenue officials on Sunday said that the proposed budget of the 2026-27 financial year would raise revenue by cracking down on tax evasion and widening the tax base rather than increasing rates.
They also said that the budget would substantially ease the compliance burden on businesses and individual taxpayers.
They were speaking at a seminar titled ‘The Explanation of Finance Bill 2026-27’ orgainsed by the Economic Reporters’ Forum, the organisation of the country’s economic, business, and financial journalists, at its auditorium in the capital.
Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury placed the Tk938,000 crore budget for fiscal year 2026-27 before parliament last Thursday.
Addressing the meeting as the chief guest, NBR chairman Abdur Rahman Khan said that sequential external shocks, the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, the Middle East conflict, and the country’s recent political transition, had badly hurt trade, industry, and output.
‘The budget had been designed around three overriding goals: keeping the prices of essential goods affordable, generating employment, and achieving economic democratization,’ he added.
To help domestic producers remain competitive internationally, the government has cut customs duties and VAT on a range of industrial raw materials.
The withdrawal of duty and VAT on daily essentials, medical equipment, and raw materials for medicine was an example of a measure intended to benefit consumers directly.
Responding a question, NBR chairman said that the budget contains no provision for legalising undisclosed money.
‘A scheme that had allowed undisclosed income to be channelled into real estate at a fixed per-square-foot levy was dropped last fiscal year and has not been restored, despite lobbying from the real estate sector,’ he added.
However, he clarified that a separate provision would allow taxpayers who understated the value of land or flat transactions in deeds to voluntarily disclose and settle at the regular tax rate.
‘This is not an opportunity to whiten black money,’ he added.
He also said that taxpayers against whom no additional demand has been raised over the past five years would be exempt from audit this year.
For others, the NBR would use data-driven benchmarking, comparing tax payments within the same profession and locality, to identify high-risk cases for scrutiny rather than auditing indiscriminately.
Bond license facilities, previously confined to the readymade garment sector and a handful of other industries, would now be open to exporters across all sectors.
Partial exporters would also import raw materials duty-free against bank guarantees.
‘The requirements to obtain Authorised Economic Operator status — which allows goods to be cleared at ports without physical inspection — have been eased, with the audit report requirement at the application stage removed,’ he added.
He also said that the NBR is introducing three distinct VAT frameworks for different categories of taxpayers.
For large businesses, online VAT return filing is now mandatory. Those using enterprise resource planning software would be able to submit returns directly from their existing systems; others would be provided free software developed by the NBR.
For medium-scale traders, VAT registration would be instant and paperless — modelled on the e-TIN process — with no back-end approval required.
For the smallest businesses, with annual turnover up to Tk 50 lakh, a simplified turnover tax would replace the standard VAT regime, he added, saying that a fixed annual amount, varying by location, would be prescribed for each business; traders might pay monthly or annually.
Regarding tobacco, he said that approximately 15 per cent of tobacco products are currently sold in the market without tax.
‘To address this, the NBR would first introduce QR codes on cigarette packs, to be followed by a higher-order encrypted ‘Airpord code’ that any consumer can scan with a smartphone to verify whether VAT has been paid,’ he added.
Once proven in the tobacco sector, the system will be extended to beverages, snack foods, and other manufactured goods, he said.
The tax rate on savings certificate interest has not been changed, the chairman clarified.
‘Under the new income tax regime, withholding tax deducted at source on savings certificate interest would be treated as advance tax, making excess deductions refundable through the return process,’ he added.
NBR first secretary for Income Tax Policy Jafar Imam said that any excess deduction might be adjusted or refunded through the return, which would be particularly beneficial for middle-income earners and retired savers.
He also said that they have been working to introduce an automated online refund system, with a target of crediting refunds directly to bank accounts within 12 days.
He also said that withholding tax on export incentives has been halved from 1 per cent to 0.5 per cent, income from freelancing and content creation has been made tax-exempt, and tax incentives for start-ups have been broadened.
‘Gold has been brought within the capital gains tax framework for the first time,’ he added.
NBR first secretary for Customs Policy, Tarek Hasan, said the budget established a legal basis for free trade zones, reducing the number of regulatory duty tiers from 9 to 6.
‘Duty concessions have been extended to electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, kidney dialysis equipment, heart rings, hemodialysis filters, braille printers, renewable energy equipment, and semiconductor manufacturing machinery,’ he added.
NBR second secretary for VAT Policy Bodruuzzaman Munshi said VAT return filing would shift from monthly to quarterly, and the advance payment required to lodge a VAT appeal has been sharply reduced from approximately 20 per cent to 4 per cent of the disputed amount.
The excise duty exemption threshold on bank accounts has been raised from Tk 3 lakh to Tk 4 lakh, and a long-standing anomaly in Islamic banking, under which the same financing transaction was subject to excise duty multiple times, has been rectified.
The fixed VAT of Tk300 on mobile SIM cards has been withdrawn, he added.
Start-ups would be VAT-exempt until 2035; freelancers and content creators will be VAT-exempt on their services, he also said, adding that the VAT concession on the Dhaka metro rail has been extended, and the tax holiday for the computer, laptop, and IT sector has been maintained through 2030.
‘VAT exemptions have also been extended to fertilisers, pesticides, heart rings, eye lenses and kidney dialysis products. For gold jewellery, the existing 5 per cent value-based VAT has been replaced with a fixed levy of Tk2,500 per bhori,’ he added.
ICAB fellow Snehasish Barua also addressed the seminar.
ERF president Doulat Akter Mala presided over the seminar, while general secretary Abul Kashem moderated the event.
