The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has received 28.51 lakh tax returns from individual taxpayers until January 1, the final day for filing income and wealth statements for fiscal year 2022-23 without any penalty, officials said yesterday.

The number of returns was 10 per cent higher than the total of 25.9 lakh filed in fiscal year 2021-22, according to NBR data.

Of the returns filed, 2.07 lakh were submitted online, up more than three times from 61,000 the previous year.

The NBR received over Tk 4,000 crore as taxes through returns filed by individual taxpayers at its field offices, said Mohammad Jahid Hasan, member of tax information management and services at the NBR.

Taxmen said more people will file returns in the remaining six months of the current fiscal year as nearly 2.5 lakh individuals sought additional time from field offices to submit their returns. Besides, new taxpayers who recently got taxpayer identification numbers (TIN) will get until June 30 this year.

As such, the total number of tax returns will likely cross 30 lakh by the end of fiscal 2022-23, according to another official.

Usually, November 30 is the final day to file tax returns, but the NBR extended the deadline by a month following demands from various quarters.

As December 30 and 31 were weekly holidays, the NBR received returns from taxpayers on January 1.

Bangladesh has around 83 lakh registered taxpayers, but the total number of returns filed until January 1 this year was 34 per cent of the total number of TIN holders.