NBR to check VAT evasion thru' ERS

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FE Report
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is considering a joint move with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to check VAT evasion while paying for mobile-phone bills through electronic recharge system (ERS).
The NBR's VAT wing at its recent review meeting discussed the possibility of integrating the expertise from the BTRC with the VAT collection process through the existing ERS.
"Such move has been initiated in order to realise VAT (value added tax) from payment of mobile bills under ERS," an official source said.
Presided over by the NBR Member (VAT) Mohammad Alam, the meeting was attended by concerned commissioners and senior officials of the VAT department.
The meeting was informed that the government had been deprived of a large amount of revenue due to non-realisation of VAT applicable on mobile phone bills.
The meeting, however, advised all the commissionerates concerned to take necessary measures to check the VAT evasion.
Also reviewing the overall VAT collection performance, it observed that despite showing a positive growth, the mobilisation of VAT during the first two months of the current fiscal was considerably lower than the target.
Such low collection was mainly due to reduction of tax from the mobile-phone sets coupled with a fall in the sales of subscribers' identification numbers (SIMs), the meeting observed.
Besides, a lower than the expected growth rate of the local cigarette manufacturing sector was also responsible for the decline in the overall VAT collection.
The meeting was also informed that the NBR had collected VAT to the tune of Tk 21.05 billion during the July-August period the fiscal year 2007-08, which reflected a 12 per cent growth over the matching period of last fiscal.
However, the collection during the last July-August period fell short of the target by about 20 per cent as the government had set the total VAT mobilisation target at Tk 158.90 billion for the current fiscal.