(MENAFN- Bangladesh Monitor) Dhaka: Outbound travellers visiting neighbouring countries from Bangladesh by land will now be able to pay their travel taxes online.
The online travel tax collection system was launched by the National Board of Revenue on January with a view to preventing tax evasion and removing hassles faced by travellers going to India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar by land and water routes.
Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, Chairman, NBR inaugurated the system at a programme held at Hotel InterContinental in the capital.
Officials of the revenue board said that initially international passengers travelling through Benapole, Darshana and Bhomra land ports would get the benefit while the service would soon be rolled out to other exit points at land and water routes for travellers to the countries.
The travellers will be able to pay the tax online using debit and credit cards of all banks through the Sonali Bank online payment gateway system, they said, adding that the taxpayers would also get access to the portal from the NBR web site.
They will also be able to pay their travel tax using the various mobile financial services, including Bkash, Rocket and UCash. The other mobile financial services in the country will be integrated with the system soon.
Airlines agents now collect travel tax from air passengers while selling air tickets online. Although travel tax collection from air passengers is now automated, air travel tax would also come under the NBR's automation system in the next phase to ensure transparency and accountability, officials said.
Outgoing international passengers have to pay travel tax ranging between BDT 500 and BDT 800 in case of travelling by land and water routes respectively.
On the other hand, air passengers have to pay between BDT 800 and BDT 2,500 as travel tax based on their destinations.
According to the NBR data, travel tax collection from outbound international passengers stood at BDT 1,104 crore in the last fiscal year 2018-2019.
Of the travel tax collected, passengers travelling by land contribute to only around 12 per cent while the remaining 88 per cent comes from air passengers as the rate of travel tax is higher by several times for those travelling by air.
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