The National Board of Revenue on Wednesday suspended its nine officials at different offices in Dhaka.
Seven of them faced disciplinary action for allegedly defying directives from higher authorities and disobeying transfer orders, an official was suspended for allegedly disclosing confidential state documents.
The Office of Tax Commissioner of Tax Zone-10, Dhaka under the NBR suspended a security guard named Md Selim Mia for ‘abusive conversation on WhatsApp about the NBR chairman’.
With these nine, 23 NBR officials were suspended, four were sent into retirement, and the Anti-Corruption Commission investigations were launched against 16 officials in three phases in the aftermath of the tax officials’ protests against the restructuring of the revenue board and other issues.
Regarding the suspension of eight officials, the NBR on Tuesday issued an order signed by second secretary Umme Ayman Kashmi.
‘Due to their defiant behaviour such as openly tearing up transfer orders issued on June 22 in an act of blatant disregard, and for supporting individuals who also disobeyed such orders, it was decided to initiate departmental proceedings against them,’ said the NBR order.
The Internal Resources Division on the day issued a notification, suspending Mukitul Hasan, second secretary (deputy commissioner) of the NBR, and making him ‘officer on special duty’ for ‘disclosing confidential state documents’.
The seven other suspended officials are Lokman Hossain, tax inspector at Dhaka Tax Region-2, Nazmul Hasan and Abdullah Al Mamun, tax inspectors at the Income Tax Intelligence and Investigation Unit, Saleha Khatun Sathi, assistant revenue officer at the Customs Excise and VAT Commissionerate, Dhaka West, Roushnara Akhter, assistant revenue officer at the Customs Bond Commissionerate, Dhaka North, Salek Khan, sepoy at the Customs Excise and VAT Commissionerate, Dhaka South, and BM Sabuj, chief assistant (warden) at the Dhaka Tax Region-14.
Earlier on Tuesday, the government suspended 14 senior NBR officials at various tax commissionerates and zones across the country and made them ‘officers on special duty’ for allegedly defying directives from higher authorities and disobeying transfer orders.
The suspended officials were mostly the frontrunners of the tax officials’ protests under the NBR Reform Unity Council, which opposed the splitting of the revenue board. The protests ended on June 29.
Regarding the recent cases of suspension, NBR officials expressed concern that more officials might face the similar fate in the coming days.
Since the end of the protests, hundreds of NBR officials sought an apology from the NBR chairman at several phases.
NBR officials had held protest programmes against the restructuring of the revenue board, and their protests intensified after the interim government introduced the Revenue Policy and Revenue Management Ordinance 2025 on May 12.
The splitting led to protests, including pen-down strikes, sit-ins, and non-cooperation, for nearly one and a half months.
On May 25, the government announced plans to amend the ordinance by July 31.
NBR officials conducted a march to the NBR and a ‘complete shutdown’ on June 28-29, disrupting business and revenue collection.
In response, the interim government on June 29 declared NBR services ‘essential,’ leading to the withdrawal of the officials’ protests.
