The Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Md. Abdur Rahman Khan, has revealed that the country’s tax administration is facing a significant data crisis due to an incomplete transition to a digital system. He noted that the premature abandonment of manual record-keeping before a fully functional digital infrastructure was in place has left the agency in a “troublesome” position.
The Chairman made these remarks on Sunday during an event at the NBR conference room in Agargaon, marking the launch of a new “Large Value Transaction” service. This service allows corporate and high-value taxpayers to pay taxes via the mobile financial service bKash, integrating the e-TDS system with the A-Challan system (ACS).
The “Missing Link” in Documentation
According to the Chairman, the NBR is currently struggling with a lack of necessary data for policy-making because it lacks both comprehensive digital databases and the traditional manual registers that were used for decades.
“A major complication has arisen. We assumed that once the digitalization process began, we would no longer need to maintain manual records. Now, we find ourselves in a situation where we have neither manual records nor a fully functioning digital system,” said Abdur Rahman Khan.
New Directives for Hybrid Record-Keeping
To mitigate the current information vacuum, the NBR chief has issued new instructions to officials:
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Parallel Documentation: All offices must maintain manual records and registers alongside digital systems until the digitalization process is 100% complete and verified.
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Efficiency Gains: The Chairman emphasized that increasing the skill level of NBR personnel is the only way to navigate this transition period.
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Policy Challenges: Without accurate and accessible data, the NBR cannot effectively formulate new tax policies or monitor compliance, which undermines overall governance.
Expansion of Digital Payments
Despite the challenges in record-keeping, the NBR continues to push for digital payment solutions. The newly inaugurated service allows large-scale tax deductions at source (TDS) to be processed through mobile banking, which is expected to increase transparency and ease of doing business for large corporations.
The Chairman concluded by stating that while full digitalization is the ultimate goal to ensure good governance and efficiency, the current “mixed state” of administration must be managed carefully to prevent further loss of vital revenue data.
