The National Board of Revenue (NBR) backtracked on its move to tax biometric SIM (subscriber identity module) registration as the telecom ministry sees it as double taxing of mobile-phone users.
The board took the decision not to impose Tk 100 as tax on registration of biometric SIM following a request from the ministry of telecommunications and mobile-phone operators.
Officials said the tax authority earlier had proposed that the government impose the tax on re-registration of SIM if ownership of SIM changed with the process.
They said ownership of many SIMs will be changed with the biometric registration as the authorities concerned had earlier found some 75 per cent of SIMs with faulty registration.
"We have backtracked on the move for imposition of tax on biometric registration of SIM. The tax may discourage the mobile-phone subscribers," said one official.  Â
With the biometric verification, all SIMs/RUIMs must be re-registered with the Election Commission's (ECs) NID database. SIMs/RUIMs sold after December 16, 2015 will be registered with biometric data including finger print.
The government has taken the move for verification of SIMs to prevent forgery using mobile phone.
Earlier, the authorities had found 14,000 SIM cards registered under one NID and 11,000 with another one.
According to the latest BTRC statistics, there are 131.4 million active mobile-phone subscribers in Bangladesh.
State Minister for Telecommunications Tarana Halim in a letter to Finance Minister AMA Muhith said it would be 'double taxation' if the government imposed tax on correction of name and information of SIM/RUIM owners.
The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) also requested the government to offer indemnity for re-registration of SIM/RUIM with biometric verification.
In compliance with the government's decision and instruction, mobile network operators (MNOs) have launched pilot deployment of biometric devices at their own centres and started SIM/RUIM registration with biometric verification from November 15, 2015, AMTOB Secretary-General T.I.M Nurul Kabir wrote to the State Minister for Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology (MOPT&IT).
Due to massive campaign undertaken by MNOs, a large number of customers are appearing at the centres from the very first day for 're-registration', it said.
During the piloting and subsequent countrywide biometric registration from December 16, 2015 onwards, existing subscribers are going to update merely their information with current and accurate data against their activated SIMs/RUIMs and no new supply of service (as opposed to supply of goods since providing telecommunications network is a service which is rendered through a physical connection i.e SIM/RUIM) is going to take place, he said in the letter.
No new service is provided through activation or reactivation and MNOs are not going to earn any revenue from this exercise, the letter said.
"…it is essential to clarify and confirm that MNOs shall not be subject to any VAT or supplementary duties (SD) in connection with updating the SIM/RUIMs information as VAT and supplementary duty applicable for these SIM/RUIM have already been paid to VAT authorities when these SIM/RUIM cards were dislodged from the warehouses," it added.
The AMTOB requested the ministry not to treat the biometric verification process as 'sale of new connection or 'replacement of existing connection'.
The association leader also urged issuance of necessary order/SRO under the VAT Act 1991 to declare that existing subscriber information update (re-registration) through proposed biometric verification process shall not be subject to any VAT or SD.
doulot_akter@yahoo.com
NBR backtracks from taxing biometric SIM registration
Doulot Akter Mala | Published: January 18, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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