Staff Correspondent: The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has taken a move to introduce tax-related textbook materials in the educational system of the country aiming to educate the populace on the importance of the tax system from early life.
Currently, according to the NBR officials, in Bangladesh there is no tax related education at any stage, which creates reluctance among the people.
This initiative aims to instill a sense of fiscal responsibility among students from an early age, thereby promoting a culture of voluntary tax compliance in the long term.
"We want to induct related materials in different levels of the education from primary to higher secondary level," a senior official of the NBR told, speaking anonymously due to the matter not being finalised yet. He said that they had already talked about this matter with various retired NBR officials who are known to write well, to design the curriculum.
"But this is not at the final stage right now," he added.
He mentioned that to improve the tax culture in the country there is no alternative to tax education among the common people of the country. "They will not be compliant without tax education, this is the big matter," he said.
For this purpose, the NBR has initiated the move to induct tax education in the text books from the very beginning.
At the initial stage, the students at the primary schools will know what is tax, how to pay this, what is the affect of non-paying taxes and what does the government do with taxes.
"The little students will know these matters at the primary level, after that in the secondary level the simple tax related calculations will be taught while at the higher secondary level they will be given to fill up simple tax file," the NBR official said.
In this context, he said that recently the NBR has organised a countrywide essay competition aiming to create public awareness on tac related matters.
"For preparing the essay the participants will search tax system of several countries, study those, know the tax culture of various countries," he added.
NBR Chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan in pre-budget meetings emphasised the importance of early education in fostering tax awareness.
He proposed the development of engaging educational materials, including cartoons and simplified texts, tailored for pre-primary and primary school students.
For higher education levels, such as high schools and colleges, tax-related content could be integrated into subjects like social science or introduced as standalone courses.
Currently, Bangladesh's revenue collection heavily relies on indirect taxes, such as customs duties and Value Added Tax (VAT), which constitute approximately 67% of total revenue. In contrast, direct taxes, primarily income tax, account for about 33%.
The NBR aims to increase the contribution of direct taxes to 42% by 2031 and 50% by 2041 through taxpayer-friendly policies and expanded education initiatives.