Dhaka: The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to gear up its drive to motivate house owners to take rents from their tenants through the banking channel as the response in this regard has so far been very poor.

The NBR has also decided to remove the house owners’ phobia about it through creating awareness through holding seminars, meetings and rallies in different parts of the country.

“We’ll launch our drive in this regard to create awareness among people,” an NBR official told UNB seeking anonymity.

The government has made it mandatory from July 1 last year to collect house rents if it goes above Tk25,000 through the banking channel, aiming to bring both the landlords and the tenants under the tax net.

According to the rule, anyone having the ownership of any property used for commercial or residential purposes have to collect his or her monthly rent over Tk 25,000 through a bank account in any scheduled bank. “But the response to the order has so far been very low,” said the NBR official.

According to him, the government can collect thousands of crore of taka as tax from over 150,000 building owners in the country’s nine city corporations. ‘That’s why the Board has also decided to tighten the monitoring system,’ he said.

About the time that has already lapsed in properly implementing the rule, he said it is very natural around the world to take time in implementing a new law or a rule. ‘But in our country it is taking some extra time as our people always have a phobia about a new system or law whether it is good or bad. That’s why the Board is giving them (house owners) some space to realise the fact and get over the fear.’

In this connection, he said the system will surely be implemented properly and once it starts working it would be good for all, including the tenants and owners.

According to the rule, the NBR will penalise house owners at the rate of 50 percent of taxes payable on incomes derived from the house property or Tk 5,000, whichever is higher, for not transacting the house rent through banks, according to the Finance Bill 2014.

NBR officials said the taxpayers are still in confusion about the new system and that is why the NBR has taken a decision to go to the public by holding meetings, seminars and rallies to remove the confusion regarding the matter.

The budget for the current fiscal set an overall revenue collection target of Tk1,82,954 crore. Of the target, the NBR share is estimated at Tk1,49,720 crore, up Tk24,720 crore than the last fiscal’s. The NBR aims to collect a record Tk 57,500 crore via direct taxes in fiscal 2014-15, up 34 percent from Tk 42,915 crore collected a year ago.