Bangladesh government workers protest tax authority reform

DHAKA: Bangladesh security forces surrounded the national tax authority headquarters on Sunday as its employees extended a two-week-long strike over the interim government’s reforms, reportedly leaving millions of dollars in taxes uncollected.

Government orders to overhaul the powerful tax authority, the National Board of Revenue (NBR), have sparked fury from ordinary employees to top management.

“Tax, customs, and VAT – all three wings will observe a complete work abstention from Monday,” Joint Tax Commissioner Monalisa Saha Sushmita told reporters at the main NBR building in Dhaka, where police and armed security gathered.

Bangladesh has been in turmoil since a student-led revolt ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, ending her 15-year iron-fisted rule.

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The interim government – led by Nobel Peace Prize microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus – is trying to instil sweeping government reforms.

The tax board protest reflects the divisions, rival loyalties and confusion between government branches and the caretaker administration.

The government order issued on May 12 proposed splitting the powerful money-raising NRB into two.

Crucially, it would also hand control of the new sections to government-chosen civil servants from outside the NRB.

Sushmita claimed that the strike will mean, in effect, that “imports and exports will also be halted” and that tax revenues totalling between $122-163 million per day had not been collected since the strike began.

It was not possible to verify those figures.

Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest garment manufacturer, while textile and garment production accounts for about 80 percent of the country’s exports.

The industry has been rebuilding after it was hit hard by last year’s unrest.

In separate protests on Sunday, hundreds of civil servants demonstrated in Dhaka against a government order giving it greater power to sack employees for disciplinary breaches.

“If the government proceeds with the amended ordinance, the interim government will face severe criticism,” said Mohammad Nazrul Islam from the Inter-Ministerial Employees Association.