The European Union (EU) funded Technical Assistance to Support the Implementation of the PFM Reform Strategic Plan in Bangladesh, implemented by DT Global is making significant strides towards strengthening domestic revenue mobilization. The assistance is provided with the aim of strengthening the institutional capacity of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and reforming existing systems and procedures of the revenue administration system, which is eventually expected to increase tax collection and improve revenue governance.
As part of this ongoing commitment to reform the revenue administration system, the EU funded Technical Assistance organized a workshop on Digitalisation of Income Tax Litigation Systems for the concerned officials of the NBR, Attorney General Office, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB), and Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB), from the 11th of October 2023 to the 12th of October 2023 at Gazipur, Dhaka, in collaboration with the NBR.
The President of Taxes Appellate Tribunal, Md. Nazmul Karim, graced the event as the Chief Guest. Mr. Md. Iqbal Hossain, Member: Taxes Appeal and Exemption; Mr. A K M Badiul Alam, Member: International Taxes and Tax Information Management and Services; and Mr. Ahammad Ullah; Member: Taxes Legal and Enforcement; attended the event as the Special Guests.
The purpose of this workshop was to disseminate the outcomes of work undertaken following the initial workshop held in December 2022, which focused on reforming the agenda, particularly in the domain of Litigation Case Management. The workshop also intended to promote stakeholder engagement towards refining and endorsing the draft products developed, inlcuding a case management framework, standard operational procedures and policies, process workflows, online appeal forms, and supporting data model.
The workshop on Digitalisation of Income Tax Litigation Systems successfully accomplished its purpose by collaboratively devising an action plan to take digitization of litigation systems forward, aiming to establish a SMART Litigation Digital environment. The participants are now expected to finalise a digitalised litigation blueprint containing appeal forms and an administrative process capable of handling online and paper-based appeal submissions. This blueprint will serve as the platform for software development, which will be instrumental in contributing to a more transparent and efficient revenue administration system.