The National Board of Revenue (NBR) yesterday honoured the 141 highest tax-paying companies and individuals for fiscal year 2022-23, including Transcom Group Chairman Shahnaz Rahman, The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam, and Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman once again.

Finance Secretary Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder and NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem handed over the awards at a programme at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center in Dhaka.

For a second consecutive year, Shahnaz Rahman has become one of the top taxpayers in the women category.

Mahfuz Anam and Matiur Rahman were named as the top taxpayers in the journalist category for the eighth year in a row.

Faridur Reza Sagar, managing director of Impress Telefilm (Channel i), Shykh Seraj, founder director and head of news at Channel i, and Mohammad Abdul Malek, editor of the Dainik Azadi, also got recognition in the same category.

Mediastar, the parent company of Prothom Alo, was the top tax-paying firm in the print and electronic media category. Mediastar is a sister concern of Transcom Group.

In the print and electronic media category, East West Media Group Ltd, Somoy Media Ltd and Times Media Ltd were also among the top taxpayers.

In the female taxpayer category, Anwara Hossain, Nilufer Ferdous, Mituli Mahbub and Shaila Afrin Khandkar have been named among the other highest taxpayers in the assessment year 2022-23.

Veteran businessman Kaus Mia, who came to the event in a wheelchair, also received the award in the business category. He has been paying taxes since 1958.

At the event, Finance Secretary Mozumder said the government has set a target to collect Tk 500,000 crore in revenue. Of it, Tk 430,000 crore will be collected by the NBR.

As of October, the performance in revenue collection has been satisfactory, he said.

He also expressed concerns about the upcoming challenges pertaining to Bangladesh's United Nations country status graduation from a least developed to a developing country by 2026.

"The graduation is a headache for us," Mozumder said.

He said following the graduation, Bangladesh would no longer be eligible for duty-free exports under preferential tariff systems.

"The country might get this benefit for a few more years as we are currently engaging in negotiations to extend (grace) periods (offered by some countries after 2026)," he said.

"But (grace periods) won't exist for long…the country will not be able to provide subsidies against exports either," he said.

"These two issues will undoubtedly make us uncompetitive, which would lead to a drop in exports and requiring a reduction in import tariffs," he added.

As a result, the country's revenue collection will face a huge challenge.

However, Mozumder said the finance division and NBR were jointly working to mobilise and bring about reforms in revenue collection, which would help tackle the upcoming challenges.

"We have set a goal to achieve one crore direct taxpayers by 2026 and the mid-term reform strategy of the NBR will be implemented by next June," he said.

NBR Chairman Muneem said the tax structure was now changing as dependency on customs has been decreasing over the years.

"We are now trying to make the tax collection process easier through automation," he said.

However, Muneem urged to all stakeholders to resolve all problems during tax payments through discussions with NBR officials.

Bangladesh has roughly 94 lakh registered taxpayers but just over one-third filed returns on their incomes in the assessment year 2022-23.

The tax authority launched the tax cards to honour compliant taxpayers in 2010-11. It started with recognising 10 taxpayers each in the individual and company categories. The NBR later revised the criteria as many honest taxpayers were left out.

Among individuals, the NBR now recognises compliant taxpayers in 18 categories, including senior citizens, businesspersons, young taxpayers, salaried persons, sportspeople, actors, singers, doctors, architects, engineers, lawyers and accountants.

In 2017, the NBR honoured the family of Latifur Rahman, the founder and former chairman of Transcom Group, as "Kar Bahadur" or tax icon family along with 83 other families from across the country.