Travel tax
Kaushik Biswas, Kolkata, India
Some mysterious things are going on in the Benapole checkpost regarding the Foreign Travel Tax which an individual has to pay before travelling to India. This tax is paid by nationals from other countries also, not only Bangladeshis. Normally, the agency concerned issues 2 receipts of such tax payment. one copy is retained by the immigration department. And the other copy, which is clearly stated and printed on the receipt as passenger's copy, is taken away by the BDR.Discrepancies have been creeping in for quite a while. At first, this Foreign Travel Tax was only taken from Bangladeshi nationals. But later, this Foreign Travel Tax was introduced for people of any nationality. For Indians, returning to India is not "Foreign Travel", instead it should be treated as return journey, but tax was being taken as "Foreign Travel Tax". The amount was previously Tk. 250, then it was raised to Tk. 500. Most importantly, for the foreign nationals, there was no printed government receipt at that time. Clearly, it was some kind of anomaly. Later, I don't know how, the amount was fixed at Tk. 300 which is the present rate. BUT, the passenger copy is taken away by the BDR. And the passenger is left with no proof that he has paid the tax! We are simply confused. Can we expect a satisfactory answer from the authorities as to what's going on ? We are paying money as per government rules, but we cannot have our receipt of tax payment!
|
|
