Protests paralyze NBR

Officials of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) continued their “complete shutdown” for a second consecutive day on Sunday (June 29), demanding the immediate removal of the NBR chairman.

Under the banner of the NBR Reform Unity Council, protesting officials are holding demonstration in front of the NBR headquarters in Agargaon since the morning.

Personnel from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), and police were on high alert.

President of NBR Reform Unity Council, Additional Commissioner Hasan Muhammad Tarek Rikabder and Unity Council Secretary General Sehela Siddika have participated in the programme.

The NBR Reform Unity Council will inform the next course of action in the afternoon.

The NBR Reform Unity Council has been staging a series of protest programmes, demanding structural reforms and the removal of the chairman, citing allegations of administrative irregularities, intimidation of officers, and obstruction of pro-reform efforts.

Since early June, agitating officials have organised work abstentions, hunger strikes, and human chains, disrupting services in tax, VAT, and customs offices across the country.

The protests began after the government issued an ordinance on May 12 dissolving both the NBR and the Internal Resources Division, replacing them with the Revenue Policy Division and the Revenue Management Division.