United News of Bangladesh

A record-breaking 10,202 individual taxpayers filed their income tax returns online on the very first day of the e-return filing process for the fiscal year 2025–26, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) said on Tuesday. Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed officially inaugurated the electronic return (e-return) submission system Monday. According to an NBR press release issued Tuesday  morning, the number of returns submitted on the first day marks a nearly fivefold increase compared to the same period last year when 2,344 returns were filed on September 9, 2024. Online submission of tax returns made mandatory in Bangladesh The surge follows a special directive issued by the NBR on August 3, 2025 making online filing mandatory for all individual taxpayers except senior citizens aged 65 and above, persons with disabilities, Bangladeshi citizens living abroad, and legal representatives of deceased taxpayers. The directive allows flexibility for those who encounter genuine difficulties in completing the e-return registration process. Such taxpayers can submit a written application with proper justification to their respective tax circle by October 31, 2025. Upon approval by the concerned Additional or Joint Commissioner of Taxes, they will be allowed to file their returns manually. Last year, over 1.7 million taxpayers filed their returns online under the partially implemented e-filing system. This year, the upgraded platform enables taxpayers to pay their taxes from home using bank transfers, debit or credit cards, and mobile financial services such as bKash, Rocket, and Nagad. They can also instantly download their acknowledgement slips and tax certificates directly from the system, the release added. To support taxpayers throughout the process, NBR has set up round-the-clock assistance via call centres and digital platforms to address any queries or technical issues related to online filing.  

Taxpayers now can pay income tax returns as well as assess their assets through an online web application -- digiTax. Desh Universal launched the web application to simplify the submission of income tax returns. Md Alamgir Hossain, member (tax policy) of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), inaugurated digiTax at a ceremony held at the auditorium of Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF) on Saturday. Alamgir Hossain said a huge interest has developed now among people to pay income tax as the number of taxpayers is now growing day by day. Read: NBR moves to speed up revenue collection Alamgir said digiTax would help simplify further the stride towards digitizing tax-related services. Apart from allowing the submission of returns online, he said, the NBR would observe Income Tax Month from November 1 for which an 'environment of fair’ is being created at tax zones so that the taxpayers can submit their returns with ease and comfort. President of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) Mahmudul Hasan Khusru, Dhaka Taxes Bar Association President AKM Azizur Rahman, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Director Khaled Mahmud Sujon, digiTax director Golam Shahriyer Ronju and ERF general secretary SM Rashidul Islam were, among others, present on the occasion. Read: NBR faces uphill task in achieving VAT collection target Highlighting the main features of digiTax, its team member Syeda Nusrat Haider said there are many taxpayers of different levels in the country who do not know how to calculate income tax properly. “In order to resolve this problem, we’ve come up with a new system through which the users can prepare their returns with ease and comfort through giving inputs as per their requirements,” she said.