EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

Tax evasion culture

Procedure and approach need reform 

THE very low Tax-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio at around 9 per cent coupled with the people's tendency to evade paying tax has been a major hurdle before the revenue administration's effort to fulfil the government's revenue collection target every year. As a result, the amount of revenue collected annually is too low compared to the population's actual potential to pay taxes. Small wonder the government has to meet the budgetary gap through borrowing from banks and foreign aid.

A recently conducted study by the Transparency International, Bangladesh (TI, B) reveals that the government has been deprived of Tk 210 billion in terms of revenue due to a number of factors that include corruption among tax officials, high rate of indirect taxes, people's tax evasion habit arising from complicated procedures, flaws in the tax collection system and so on.

But of no less importance is the collusion between the corrupt tax officials and taxpayers. While shortage of manpower exacerbates the problem further.

It cannot be gainsaid that structural flaws combined with manmade factors militate against effective spreading of tax network as well as revenue targets. . Such a state of affairs calls reform in the tax administration that should include overhauling tax laws, procedure of tax collection and submission of tax returns. And of equal importance is effecting a change in the public's attitude towards paying taxes. But the public's apathy to pay tax is rooted in their psyche--the fear of being harassed and unjustly fleeced by tax officials. And to a large measure, that fear is also not without its basis. Still worse is that a section of corrupt tax officials that resorts to underhand dealings with clients at the expense of the state

exchequer.

A cleaner and efficient tax administration is a big boost to the public's confidence in the system. A simplified but electronic tax collection and submission of returns will further ease, expedite as well as improve quantity and quality of the revenue collection system. It is hoped

that the government would take serious note of these suggestions.

Inculcating sense of history

Book distribution plan welcome

A sense of history is the foundation upon which a society finds a niche for itself in the global scheme of things. In Bangladesh, given the various distortions which have crept into our history, inculcating a sense of history in the young is of seminal significance. That is why the government move to provide a fifteen-volume work on War of Liberation free of cost to nearly 17,000 school and colleges is welcome. The initiative toward this laudable exercise was of course taken by the last caretaker government, for which it deserves credit. It is our expectation that the present elected government will eventually fulfill this onerous responsibility of bringing our young population level with the history of the country, particularly in relation to the War of Liberation and the events that preceded it.

The authorities plan to distribute the volumes to 17,000 additional educational institutions next year. Last year, altogether 898 institutions were given the work. We can safely predict, therefore, that in the near future the volumes will eventually reach those institutions which are yet to come by them. We do think, though, that a caveat is necessary here. It is that the teaching of history through these fifteen volumes must avoid the controversies and misinterpretations which have for years left the young confused about the background to the momentous happenings of 1971. We trust that the contributions of all individuals and sections of people involved in the making of Bangladesh's history will have been taken account of in these works and that in future there will be no scope for anyone to point to any loopholes in the narrative.

Finally, it remains for teachers in schools and colleges to make it a point to have their students go through the volumes on a regular and concerted basis. Indeed, no matter what subjects pupils take up for study, the teaching of history should be made part of the curricula. Nothing can be worthier than knowing about one's cultural and political roots.