Advanced audit training for NBR income tax officials begins

A six-day advanced audit training for National Board of Revenue (NBR) income tax officials began at a Dhaka hotel on Sunday, said a press release.

Funded by the European Union, the training consists of five different courses conducting over and attending by NBR income tax officials who are already well experienced in the role of auditing large, complex corporates and industries.

NBR chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmutal Muneem was the chief guest of the inaugural session of the training.

Addressing the event, the NBR chief reiterated the fact 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.

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. 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 and HRM) Shaheen Akhter added that these officers starting these trainings today are the cornerstone for building our digital capacity and sustainability. And these courses will meet the specific needs of the officials to perform more efficiently.

NBR member and tax administration 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 telco industries in Bangladesh. He explained that all trainings would be presented by the resource persons specialized on relevant fields.

NBR member (tax administration and HRM) Shaheen Akhter added that these officers starting these trainings today are the cornerstone for building our digital capacity and sustainability. And these courses will meet the specific needs of the officials to perform more efficiently.

NBR member and tax administration 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 telco industries in Bangladesh. He explained that all trainings would be presented by the resource persons specialized on relevant fields.

Trainees were specifically selected to attend this course based on their prior experience as well as them being earmarked as future specialists within these particular industries. The training is funded by the European Union under the Technical Assistance to EU PRM Programme in Bangladesh.

NBR member (audit, intelligence and investigation) Pradyut Kumar Sarkar wished the trainees well and closed the ceremony by explaining that audit is an essential tool available to NBR to ensure compliance and although it is often frowned upon by business, the objective is to make these audit interventions shorter, more targeted and less intrusive to business.

Finally, he expressed his sincere thanks towards the European Union for arranging these training programs.

Part II of the training will be presented by KPMG startling in early January 2023.