Staff Correspondent:

The government may lift the requirement to submit proof of income tax return filing when purchasing savings certificates. Currently, the purchase of savings certificates worth over Tk 500,000 (Tk 5 lakh) requires a proof of submission of return (PSR) document from the previous tax year. This is a hassle for small and medium investors.

The upcoming national budget may include a proposal to abolish this requirement altogether, or to introduce exemption up to a certain investment limit. Finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed is expected to announce the decision during his budget speech. The investors would then only need to present their Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) certificate as before.

The national budget for the 2025–26 fiscal year will be announced on 2 June. As there is no national parliament in session at present, the budget will be announced through a televised address to the nation.

Currently, the department of National Savings sells four types of savings certificates. These are – 5-Year Bangladesh Sanchayapatra, 3-Monthly Profit Bearing Sanchayapatra, Family Savings Certificate, and Pensioner Sanchayapatra. Among these, the Family Savings Certificate is the most in demand. This particular scheme is available exclusively to women.

In Bangladesh, there are many people without taxable income who invest in savings certificates and rely on the profit for their livelihood and such taxpayers are obligated to submit tax returns.

Reportedly, proof of submission of return (PSR) is required to access 45 government and non-government services across the country at present. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) introduced this initiative to increase the number of tax return submissions. Many taxpayers file zero returns simply to fulfill the PSR submission requirement.

According to NBR sources, this year 1.6 million taxpayers submitted their returns online, two-thirds of which were zero returns.