A set of e-services, including VAT e-calculation, e-appeal, e-tax adviser and e-learning, is going to be launched for the country's VAT-payers from July 1.
The VAT Online Project (VOP) under National Board of Revenue (NBR) will offer the online services with enforcement of the new VAT and Supplementary Duty Act from the first day of the next fiscal year, 2016-17.
A senior official of the project said businesses will be able to submit tax returns online and pay e-VAT from August. They will also be able to calculate VAT through VAT calculator, submit appeal, and obtain advice online.
With implementation of the VAT law, the foreign companies, doing business online from abroad without any establishment in Bangladesh, have to appoint agents in the country. The VAT authority will provide necessary trainings to the agents.
"We are jointly working with the Bangladesh Bank (BB) in this regard," said additional commissioner of VOP Zakir Hossain.
There will be online training facility - e-learning - from June. There will be some 20 VAT-related courses. Major portion of VAT will be covered through the courses. After completing the courses, the students will get certificate online, he also said.
Another facility - e-ask - will also be introduced to give answers to different queries of the VAT-payers. VOP will offer call center facility to them, where they can submit queries through e-mail, he added.
Meanwhile, NBR has unveiled Taxpayers Communication Plan 2015-16 with details of all the services for the taxpayers.
NBR web portal and e-learning portal will be the interface between the revenue board and the taxpayers.
The NBR web portal will provide all information on VAT and online services, like - registration, payment, return submission and appeal etc.
The e-learning portal will provide hands-on training to the taxpayers using online distance learning method. VAT apps will help them to know about updates of the portals.
About 500 FAQs (frequently asked questions) will be published on the NBR portal, and 20 courses on VAT will be developed for the e-learning system.
After implementation of the new law, NBR will reward some lucky end-consumers through lottery for helping proper VAT payment.
"VOP will sign a contract with a mobile operator (preferably, the government-owned company Teletalk) to establish a lottery system. The end-consumers may text VAT invoice numbers from their mobile phones to a specific number given by NBR via SMS," as per the plan.
A monthly lottery will be held on the SMS. Some 100 real-taxpayers (end-consumers) may be selected as winners.
"The expense for lottery will be borne from the revenue earnings of SMS receipt by the mobile operator. The remaining amount may be kept by the operator," it added.
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