The High Court on Sunday ordered the government bodies to collect tax and VAT from the payment made to all social media operators including Google, Facebook, Youtube and Amazon as per the existing law of the country.
The National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh Bank and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission have been asked to comply with the order.
The court also asked the government to collect the arrears of the tax on the payment made to the companies for last five years. The NBR has been asked to submit a report to the court over their collection in every six month.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil passed the order while delivering a verdict after holding hearing on a writ petition filed in this regard.
The writ petition was filed in 2018 as public interest litigation by six SC lawyers including Mohammad Humayun Kabir Pallob, Mohammad Kawser, Mohammad Majedul Kader, and Md Sazzadul Islam.
Following the writ petition, the HC in April 12, 2018 directed the government to realise appropriate tax, VAT and other charges from revenues earned by different digital platforms like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo and YouTube.
In response to the writ petition, the court also asked the government to form a special committee to assess the amount of their financial transactions in recent years and to submit an assessment report to this court by June 25, 2018.
The HC also issued a rule, asking the respondents to explain in four weeks as to why their inaction to realise appropriate tax, VAT and other charges from the revenues earned by different digital platforms in Bangladesh should not be declared illegal.
The bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal passed the order and issued the rule.
During hearing on the petition, advocate Pallab said, "Digital platforms like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, YouTube and their ilk are earning substantial income in Bangladesh since 2007, but they do not pay any tax on their earnings. As a result, our government is losing revenue. But European countries like UK, Italy and France are receiving huge revenue from their income."
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