Dhaka: The upgradation process of e-payment system of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) for enhancing its capacity for accepting large transactions and providing a hassle-free tax payment procedure to the taxpayers is nearing completion.

‘The software upgradation process for enhancing NBR’s capacity for accepting any amount of transactions to be credited to the national exchequer electronically is going on at the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC),’ a senior official of the NBR told UNB.

After completion of the process, the taxpayers would be able to transfer any amount as taxes to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) electronically.

‘Very soon the system upgradation will be completed,’ the NBR official said.

The e-payment system was introduced in the country on May 26, 2012. But through this system taxpayers could not deposit large amount of money to the national exchequer.

‘If the upgradation process is completed taxpayers will be able to pay any amount of money from any scheduled bank account through e-payment,’ the official said.

Currently the taxpayers are able to make relatively small payments against their income tax, VAT and customs duty through the e-payment system.

Only the account holders of 26 scheduled banks of the country which are connected with the Q-Cash network are eligible to pay the tax through e-payment system. Debit card and credit card holders of these banks can avail the facility of this payment system.

NBR, Bangladesh Bank, Sonali Bank, and the Comptroller and Auditor General office are the coordinators of the system. Q-cash is acting as the ‘processor’ of transferring fund from the account of the taxpayers to the national exchequer.

‘After the capacity building the taxpayers will be able to pay any amount of their tax from their homes or offices or any other places,’ the NBR official said.

He said that the NBR is working to include all banks and their cards under the e-payment system. He also said Q-cash, Sonali Bank and NBR are jointly conducting the e-payment system taking financial and technical help from the Investment Climate Fund and International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The NBR official hoped that the e-payment system would be popular among the taxpayers.

The NBR already signed agreements with the City Bank and Standard Chartered Bank to pay tax through the bank accounts. ‘Very soon we will sit with all the scheduled banks of the country and sign agreements with them,’ the NBR high official said adding that after the signing of the agreements the NBR would request all the banks to take their preparations in this regard.

‘Although the amount of taxes deposited to the national exchequer using e-payment facility is very insignificant, but we are very much optimistic that this system will be popular among the taxpayers due to its hassle-free character,’ he said.

The NBR official said that they are expecting increase of tax payment after introduction of the system which will ultimately help the tax collecting authority to achieve its target for the running fiscal.

This year NBR has got a target of Tk 176,370 crore for the 2015-16 fiscal. An amount of Tk 64,971 crore is expected to come from income tax, while Tk 64,262 crore from VAT and Tk 18,752 from import duty. The target for export duty has been fixed at Tk 37 crore, excise duty at Tk 1,239 crore and supplementary duty at Tk 25,875.