In my opinion, if anyone asks me to rank the most corrupt department and officials, I would rank the income tax department as the "number one". Could anyone who does not have any reference say that they got their annual assessment cleared from income tax department without bribing? Probably the number should be zero. I had this experience because one of my relatives who is working abroad assigned me to do some of his personal work including clearance of income tax assessment. As he is working with a multinational company, to avoid double taxing he was badly in need of his income tax clearance. In Dhaka, he was working with one NGO and his salary circle was circle-4, located at the HBFC building, Purana Paltan. When I met with one of the clerks of this circle, he, after reviewing all the documents and bank statement, took me to one high official. As my relative recently constructed a house, reviewing his documents and current foreign currency income the official through the clerk demanded Tk 10, 000 to settle the case. I informed him that the house was constructed with HBFC loan; even then he stuck to Tk 10, 000. He told me that as my relative was working abroad and making a lot of foreign currency, this was a complicated case and to manage the system I would have to pay Tk 10, 000. Otherwise, my relative would face many problems.

Then I realised the magnitude of corruption in the income department.

In conclusion, I would like to appeal to the authorities concerned to look into the matter and make life easier for tax payers.