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The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has proposed an integrated “One NBR” architecture to bring income tax, VAT and customs administrations under a more unified taxpayer-management system, as it targets raising Bangladesh’s tax-to-GDP ratio to 15 per cent by 2035, according to a report by a local news agency.
The NBR currently estimates the ratio at 6.8 per cent, among the lowest levels in South Asia and neighbouring countries. The ratio stood at 6.7 per cent in FY2024-25 and 6.8 per cent in FY2025-26.
The revenue authority presented its reform and capacity-building roadmap at the second meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Finance last month.
Under the roadmap, the NBR has set a short-term target of 8.8 per cent, followed by 10 per cent in the medium term before reaching 15 per cent by 2035.
The NBR said achieving the FY2026-27 revenue target and improving the tax-to-GDP ratio would require more than raising tax rates. It identified expansion of the tax base, improved taxpayer compliance, greater use of technology and data, and integration of tax administration as key priorities.
The NBR accounts for around 86 per cent of the government’s total revenue, according to its presentation.
The board said the tax-to-GDP ratio has remained mostly between 7 per cent and 8 per cent over the past 25 years. It briefly reached around 10 per cent between FY2011-12 and FY2014-15 before declining again.
The NBR also found that government expenditure increased 4.47 times over the period under review, while NBR revenue collection rose 3.40 times, highlighting the need to improve revenue productivity in line with growing public spending.
The proposed reforms include reviewing the legal framework, establishing an enterprise architecture, creating a unique taxpayer master database and developing a common data dictionary and system inventory.
The NBR also plans to establish a Revenue Policy Secretariat, introduce a tax-expenditure register and make policy-costing templates mandatory.
Within the first three years, it aims to introduce a unified taxpayer account, integrated customer relationship and case-management systems, third-party data matching, a cross-tax compliance risk engine and a common payment and arrears view.
For customs, specialised border functions would be retained while importer and exporter identities would be integrated with valuation, VAT and income-tax risk data.
Over three to five years, the NBR plans to introduce near-real-time compliance analytics, expand pre-filled tax returns where legally feasible, automate low-risk refunds and deploy advanced entity-network and fraud analytics.
The NBR said the reforms would also seek to support industrial development and export competitiveness through customs automation, single-window services and targeted fiscal incentives.
