DHAKA, Dec 11, 2022 (BSS) - The training titled "Advanced Audit Training for NBR Income Tax Officials" funded by the European Union started today. 

The training programme consists of five different courses will be conducted over the next six days where NBR income tax officials who are already well experienced in the role of auditing large, complex corporates and industries will take part. 

Speaking on the occasion as the chief guest, NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md. Rahmutal Muneem reiterated that effective tax administration today is fully reliant on reliable and robust systems. 

"NBR has achieved significant progress on revenue collection and we need to be going forward with greater in-house capabilities to contribute higher on that," he added. 

In recent years, audits have been developed as a very useful tool by tax administration to improve compliance and enhance collections. 

But, due to lack of adequate manpower and other resources, audit processes cannot cover the entire taxpayer population. So, it has become necessary to develop the capacity of our own officials for better results with available resources, said a press release. 

These advance audit courses will improve the ability of the tax officials to conduct audit activities more efficiently and will increase revenue yield from audits.

NBR Member Tax Administration HRM Shaheen Akhter added that these officers who are taking such training are the cornerstone for building digital capacity and sustainability. "And these courses will meet the specific needs of the officials to perform more efficiently."

NBR Member and TA Focal Point Jahid Hasan, explained that this training would address financial audit, tax audit within computerized accounting environments, and specific focus on conducting tax audits within the banking, insurance and telecom industries in Bangladesh. 

He explained that all trainings would be presented by the resource persons specialized on relevant fields. 

Guest of honour and acting head of cooperation of the delegation of the European Union in Bangladesh Jurate Smalskyte Melville noted that digitalization of taxation is moving fast not only to reduce paper waste for a greener environment, but also to make tax systems in Bangladesh more efficient. 

She also added that officials at NBR will have to keep up with this fast-changing environment. "The European Union strongly supports this capacity building and warmly welcomes the group of forty participants."

Trainees were specifically selected to attend this course based on their prior experience. The training is funded by the European Union under the Technical Assistance to EU PRM Programme in Bangladesh. 

NBR Member for Audit, Intelligence and Investigation Pradyut Kumar Sarkar said that audit is an essential tool available to NBR to ensure compliance.

The Part II of the training will be presented by KPMG starting from early January next year.