Make tax return submission mandatory for all NID cardholders

Submitting income tax returns could be made mandatory for every national identification (NID) cardholder with a view to expanding the tax net, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said yesterday.

Momen said he had proposed making return submission mandatory for all NID cardholders when his elder brother, the late AMA Muhith, was the finance minister of Bangladesh. 

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

And although Muhith wanted to implement it, he was unable due to bureaucratic tangles, Momen added.

The foreign minister made these comments at a programme, styled "Remembering Abul Maal Abdul Muhith", organised by the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF) at its office in Dhaka.

At the event, Momen recalled the contributions his brother made to the nation.

Momen said Muhith, in his book, had identified foreign nationals who contributed to the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971.

Now, the government is awarding those foreign nationals for their outstanding contributions, he added.

A group of ERF members who had a warm professional relationship with the former finance minister also recalled their memories with Muhith.

Fazle Kabir, former governor of Bangladesh Bank, said Muhith was a great economist as well as a versatile and robust genius.

Kabir also narrated how the $1 billion meant for the construction of Padma Bridge was withdrawn by the World Bank.

It was Muhith who then took the initiative to make it clear that Padma Bridge would be constructed with the country's own financing, said Kabir, who was finance secretary at the time.

Kabir recalled how Muhith handled the cyber heist incident, where $81 million was stolen from the central bank by a group of hackers.

Self-efface and neutrality were two rare personal traits of the former finance minister, he added.

Mahbub Ahmed, former senior finance secretary, said Muhith had unofficially told him to negotiate with the US for signing a Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (TICFA) with Bangladesh as the issue was pending for many years.

Finally, both Bangladesh and the US signed the TICFA for resolving different bilateral trade issues between the two countries through discussions and consultation, Ahmed added.

The former senior finance secretary went on to say that Muhith was involved in Paribesh Bachao Andolon, a movement for saving the environment.

Being the finance minister, Muhith had instructed Ahmed to form the climate change trust fund to this end.

Muhith was a patriotic and hardworking person, Ahmed said.

ERF General Secretary Abul Kashem moderated the event, which was chaired by ERF President Mohammad Refayet Ullah Mirdha.