NBR's no to Sonali plea for refunding Tk 3.78b in AIT

---

Doulot Akter Mala The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has ruled out the plea of the state-owned Sonali Bank on refunding Tk 3.78 billion in Advance Income Tax (AIT) that has accumulated after assessment of the taxes paid since 1995 tax year. The NBR officials said they held a number of meetings with the authorities of the bank but found no valid ground to refund the tax amount in line with the existing law as a big chunk of revenue remains stuck up along with the appeal lodged by the bank against the demand of taxmen. According to the income tax law, Sonali Bank is paying tax at the rate of 42.5 per cent on its annual income like other banks. "We have found the bank to be reluctant on payment of tax. Taxmen received taxes mostly in the form of AIT that the bank had paid on purchase of treasury bonds," an official said. Another income tax official said there was no scope of refunding the amount. The taxmen were rather planning to scrutinise tax files of some Sonali Bank officials after the Hallmark loan scam, he added. Last year, the management of the bank temporarily suspended its 17 officials for their alleged involvement in the misappropriation of Tk 35.47 billion through forgery. Of the amount, the Hallmark Group alone managed to embezzle Tk 26.86 billion. The central bank has also detected financial irregularities in two other branches of the bank -- at Gulshan and at Agargaon -- in the city. In May 2012, a Bangladesh Bank (BB) investigation also revealed serious irregularities by the bank in sanctioning and disbursing loans, especially to the Hallmark Group and others, and instructed the authorities concerned to take necessary actions in this regard. The official said the NBR has the taxes in arrear along with the cases filed by the bank in courts and the appellate tribunal. However, he did not disclose the arrear amount. In a letter, Kazi Taslima Banu, general manager of the bank, requested the NBR to refund the taxes including interest on the amount. "NBR has counted the interest amount at Tk 699 million for delay in payment of taxes from 2007 to 2011 fiscals but has not considered interest on the arrear refund amount of the bank," she wrote. Instead of paying the tax at 5.0 per cent and 10 per cent for the cases in the appellate tribunal and High Court (HC) respectively, the bank adjusted it with the refund-amount. After adjustment of the taxes, the bank found Tk 3.78 billion taxes pending with the NBR as refund tax. It counted the refund tax on the basis of assessment by the tax officials from 1992 to 2007 tax years.