E-payment of customs duty to increase efficiency in tax collection: speakers

The introduction of e-payment system for customs duty will increase the efficiency in tax collection and will also help to reduce irregularities and time lag, said speakers at a webinar recently.

The webinar was organised by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) in Bangladesh titled ‘Webinar on e-Payment of Customs Duty.

Corporate customers make various regulatory payments related to customs duty, income tax and value added tax (VAT) to the National Board of Revenue manually through Cashier’s Orders, Demand Drafts. The process used to have a turnaround time of 1 to 3 days depending on the location of the customer and where the payments need to be deposited.

In October 2015, the Bangladesh Bank introduced RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) payments in the banking industry and leveraging RTGS infrastructure, NBR launched its Customs Duty payment solution in 2017.

The HSBC collaborated to pioneer this initiative as the banking partner by linking the Bank’s electronic payment channel HSBCNet.

These payments get executed near real-time. Customers or their representatives get notified immediately regarding the successful payment and NBR’s database also gets updated instantly. In case of any anomaly in the payment, the payment gets rejected and the client/ their representative get notified accordingly.

Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury, Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh said, “I thank NBR, Bangladesh Bank for taking various steps for the automation of different statutory payments including e-Duty. I acknowledge HSBC for taking the initiative to create awareness among corporates.  Technology is changing the world and we have to embrace it to be relevant with the world. Automation of all kind of statutory  payments should be implemented as soon as possible which will not only make the business easy but also reduce the GOVT borrowing cost and help improve the public service.”

Abu Hena Md. Rahmatul Muneem, Chairman, National Board of Revenue said, said, “NBR is continuously trying to make comfortable environment for any sorts of revenue collection and revenue administration and introduced many systems over last few months. ePayment is one of it which will tremendously ease the business and customs collection. This will be made mandatory, I hope beneficiaries will take things comfortably.”

Ahmed Jamal, Deputy Governor, Bangladesh Bank said, “I emphasize on the awareness creation of the ’e-Payment of customs duty’ among various banks and corporate customers. If required Bangladesh Bank will further enhance the capability of RTGS to meet the demand of business community.

Commenting on the solution, Md. Mahbub ur Rahman, CEO, HSBC Bangladesh said, “This end-to-end electronic payment solution has significantly enhanced the efficiency and reduced the turnaround time of the Customs Duty Payments of corporate customers. As the leading trade bank, it is very befitting for us to to continue to collaborate with the National Board of Revenue and Bangladesh Bank in this digitalization journey. Together we are aiming to facilitate the revenue collection for the National Exchequer and we are very happy to leverage our expertise and excellence as a global bank.”