Expansion of Taxes Appellate Tribunal proposed

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S M Jahangir
A fresh move is on to streamline the settlement process of tax-related disputes, aiming to help the National Board of Revenue (NBR) recover its huge stuck-up revenue.
A process is on to create two more hearing benches under Dhaka zone of the Taxes Appellate Tribunal (TAT) for facilitating the disposal process of the tax-related appeals, officials sources said.
"The TAT has already put forward a fresh proposal to the finance adviser for increasing the number of hearing benches to at least six from existing four under the Dhaka tax zone," a senior official said.
The existing four benches are not enough to deal with the growing number of tax-related appeals, the official added.
Usually, the Tribunal registers more than 600 appeals a month for hearing, the TAT sources said adding the Tribunal disposes more or less 7,000 cases in a financial year.
An official told the FE that about 2000 appeals were registered by the TAT under its Dhaka zone during the first quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal.
He, however, said two other benches under the Tribunal are functioning outside Dhaka -- one in Chittagong and the other in Khulna, under the tribunal.
Members of the hearing benches in Dhaka zone often face tremendous pressure for the settlement of tax-related appeals as nearly 70 per cent of the total cases are registered with its four benches alone.
Considering the situation, the government recently extended the maximum time limit for the disposal of tax appeals by two months more to six months, official sources said.
Another important objective of such extension is to ensure fair judgment in tax-related disputes, they said.
"The extension of the timeframe will not only help reduce the work pressure of the hearing benches, but it will also ensure fair judgment," said an official.
Earlier, the authorities had doubled the number of cases to 80 for disposal by each of hearing benches under Dhaka zone in a month.
Besides, the government had also introduced financial incentive for the TAT members for settlement of additional number of appeals.
Normally, the tax-related disputes that remain unresolved at the initial hearing by the tax appellate zones under the NBR are forwarded to the TAT for settlement.
Under the existing provision, a full hearing bench requires two members (tax) at a time, they said, adding a one-member bench is unable to handle tax-related disputes involving more than Tk 150,000.
Officials, however, said apart from the current move to enhance the number of hearing benches, the TAT has long been pursuing the government for resolving the existing administrative problems of the Tribunal.
The prevailing administrative problem coupled with insufficient manpower has been affecting the normal activities of the Tribunal, they mentioned.