Swift prosecution of pending cases to help NBR earn Tk 150b in revenue

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Naim-Ul-KarimbrNumber of pending cases related to revenue collection has accumulated to 13,364 mainly due to failure of the state to take steps in moving for prosecution, officials said Thursday.brThey said decade-old cases filed particularly by corporate and business entities against the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in the past years were mostly related to disputes over assessment of Income Tax, Value Added Tax (VAT) and Import Duty. brSettlement of such pending cases will help the government earn a large amount of unrealised but disputed revenue which will be worth over Tk 150 billion (Tk.15,000 crore) provided NBR wins the cases, a senior official of the revenue board said.brHe said a large number of cases were filed intentionally showing the cause of wrong-doing during assessment of tax, import duty and VAT in connivance with a section of taxmen to dodge payment of revenue.brThe official, however, said the number of cases filed in the past two years compared to the previous years was 50 per cent lower as the incidences of 'disputes' have dramatically dropped.brAs an example, he said Suppose, we assessed the payable income tax for a person at Tk 1.5 million. But he is opposed to it and says his payable income tax will not be over Tk 1.0 million. Unsatisfied, he then lodges a case for the disputed amount of five lakh taka. brAs part of another example, the NBR official said that customs officials assessed the customs duty of a certain imported item to be Tk 150,000 but the importer opposed the calculation and agreed to pay Tk.100,000 but filed a case for rest of the amount. The importer then cleared his goods and took delivery by submitting a bank guarantee equal to the disputed amount.brApart from helping the government collect unrealised revenue, the official said settlement of those pending cases will also help many corporate and business houses from bearing the costs of paying commission and interest to banks year after year against such guarantees.brOf the total pending cases, 11,262 were related to customs duty and 2029 to disputes over VAT, officials of the revenue board said.brThe cases in connection to income tax, however, stood at 73, they added.brExcept for a few cases in lower courts, officials said almost all the cases are pending for prosecution at the Supreme Court.brThe Department for Legal Affairs of the NBR said it has already formed a convening body to take steps to pursue the cases for expediting the prosecution process.brMd Shamsul Islam, member secretary of the convening body of the NBR said We have already held several meetings in this connection, brHe said We are trying to identify the cases which are of the same nature so that after settlement of one case of that nature we can ask the other parties to settle outside the court. br In a meeting on August 18, Mr Islam said all wings of the NBR has been asked to determine the problems that were hindering the moves for swift prosecution of the cases and submit recommendations.brApart from this, all customs houses, VAT and tax commissionerates have been instructed to report about the position of the cases by September 20, the official said, adding they are trying to boost collection of the revenue from internal resources.brThe government set the revenue collection target for the current fiscal year at Tk 545 billion (Tk 54500 crore).