Twenty National Board of Revenue (NBR) officials who were punished for taking part in protests under the interim government a year ago have now been spared.
A notification waiving the punishment of these officials — who were first suspended and later given minor penalties — was issued Sunday. Separate notifications were signed by NBR Acting Chairman and Internal Resources Division Acting Secretary Ahsan Habib.
Those whose punishments were waived are: Deputy Commissioner Shahadat Jamil, Revenue Officer Shafiul Bashar, Revenue Officer Sabuj Mia, Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Saidul Alam, Commissioner Zakir Hossain, Joint Commissioner Sanowarul Kabir, Additional Commissioner Sadhan Kumar Kundu, Additional Commissioner A.A.M. Amimul Ehsan, Additional Commissioner Sifat-e-Mariam, Additional Commissioner Hasan Muhammad Tareq Rikabdar, Deputy Tax Commissioner Zillur Rahman, Deputy Tax Commissioner Imam Tawhid Hasan Shakil, Additional Tax Commissioner Mirza Ashik Rana, Joint Tax Commissioner Monalisa Shahreen Susmita, Joint Tax Commissioner Mamun Mia, Additional Tax Commissioner Chand Sultana, Additional Tax Commissioner Sultana Habib, Additional Tax Commissioner Murad Ahmed, Joint Tax Commissioner Masuma Khatun, and Joint Tax Commissioner Mohammad Morshed Uddin.
NBR officials had appealed to Prime Minister Tareque Rahman at a revenue conference on Aug. 18 to withdraw their punishment, and Tareque Rahman had assured them he would consider it. That assurance has now been fulfilled.
The protest and the punishment
As part of tax administration reform, the interim government split the NBR into two separate divisions — Revenue Management and Revenue Policy. When an ordinance to that effect was issued in 2025, NBR officials and staff launched protests against it, including pen-down strikes and other programs.
On May 22 that year, a Finance Ministry press release said “necessary amendments” would be made to the ordinance, and that all NBR operations would continue under the existing structure until the amendments were made.
But in the meantime, employees at the agency raised various allegations and launched a fresh protest demanding the resignation of then-NBR Chairman Abdur Rahman Khan, declaring him “persona non grata” at the agency’s office.
When some officials leading the protest were subsequently transferred, they tore up their transfer orders in protest during a program on June 24.
To press their demands, officials and staff launched a “complete shutdown” program on June 28. Their protest brought NBR operations, including import-export activities, to a standstill. When the program continued the next day, the interim government decided to declare the agency’s services “essential.”
Through mediation by business leaders, the protesters’ platform, the NBR Reform Unity Council, withdrew the shutdown program.
Punitive action against officials followed one after another. Many officials were forced into retirement, while others received minor penalties.
What the waiver notification says
Although the notification waives the punishment, it also lays out the reasons for the officials’ disciplinary breach.
It states that these officials, at 11:30 a.m. on June 24, 2025, gathered at the entrance to the Revenue Bhaban and, without lawful justification, defiantly and publicly tore up a transfer order issued on June 22 that year in front of electronic and print media, an act of insubordination that also amounted to endorsing defiance of the transfer order.
Since such conduct was harmful to service discipline, discourteous, and tantamount to disregarding a government order, the notification states that some officials’ pay was reduced by several steps, while others’ pay was reduced for several years.
Based on their applications, it now says the punishment has been waived: these officials, through the proper channel, submitted appeals to the president by July 30 seeking clemency, and the president granted the appeals and ordered the punishment revoked.