The NBR has already prepared names of 6,500 self-assessed taxpayers of Dhaka and Chittagong. The NBR will finalise names of the remaining 3,500 taxpayers from other tax zones.

The NBR list contains names of doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants, contractors, businessmen and other professionals of Dhaka and Chittagong. About 80 doctors and 60 lawyers from Dhaka are on the list, sources added.

As per the NBR decision, the taxmen's observations on the audit will be duly forwarded to the taxpayers so that they can defend themselves.

So far, about 6.5 lakh tax returns have been filed in the current fiscal year and of those 1.4 lakh are self-assessed tax returns.

Previously it was found that most of the professionals under self-assessment system do not show their exact incomes. Besides, taxpayers also complained about harassment by NBR auditors, even forcing them to bribe them at times.

To avoid such matters, the NBR in August last year decided to engage tax commissioners instead of inspectors for auditing and fixed a set of criteria to select self-assessment returns.

A three-member committee headed by tax commissioners of different tax zones was assigned to prepare a list of returns for auditing on the basis of the criteria and submit it to the board for final approval.

The NBR in a list of top taxpayers of seven professional groups last year showed that contractors are the highest taxpayers while real estate developers and buying houses are the lowest of all.

It also showed that some top developers and engineering firms paid no tax in 2003-04 fiscal and there was no name of certain developers on the list who are selling thousands of acres of land and hundreds of apartments.

Majority of the 101 listed developers showed zero tax with many showing losses in their books. Only 11 developers paid more than Tk 100,000 in tax. The Eastern Housing paid the highest Tk20 lakh in tax.

The doctors' community forms the general impression of high-income group. But only one-third of the top hundred doctors paid more than Tk 100,000 in tax. Last year, Dr Pran Gopal Dutta led the group paying Tk 4.18 lakh in tax, followed by Dr Mobin Khan (Tk 4.14 lakh) and Dr Akram Ullah (Tk 3.51 lakh).

The scenario is not good either in the garment sector as tax paid by buying houses remained poor. Out of 87 listed buying houses, only 16 paid over Tk 100,000 in tax.

Contractors topped the list with National Development Eng Ltd paying Tk 1.34 crore in tax followed by Al-Amin Construction with Tk 1 crore.