The revenue board has halved Value Added Tax (VAT) for the country's superstores in a bid to encourage consumers to buy quality products at reasonable prices from such outlets.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) cut the VAT on purchase of products from the superstores to 2.0 per cent from 4.0 per cent.
The government made the downward revision after it found a 30 per cent decline in sales of products in the super shops following increase in the VAT on superstore sales in 2011. Â
The VAT policy wing of the board recently issued a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO), signed by first secretary (VAT policy) Md Sawkat Hossain, in this connection.
In the SRO, effective from January 27, the NBR amended the VAT collection rules, 2012 for reducing VAT on super shops.
A senior VAT official said the government had imposed the 4.0 per cent VAT on consumers of the super shops in the budget for fiscal year (FY) 2011-12 in a bid to increase tax collection.
"We felt the necessity of reducing the VAT following proposals of the superstore owners," he said.
The NBR will consider a shop as 'super shop' if it sells grocery items for daily use including safe and preservative-free fishes, meats, rice, pulses, green vegetables, fruits etc, the SRO said. "Areas of the shops should be within 12,000 square feet. The shops will have to use Electronic Cash Register (ECR) or Point of Sale (POS) software for maintenance of accounts and issuance of bills," it added.
"Superstores like Almas that does not sell grocery kitchen items will not be entitled to enjoy the reduced rate of VAT," the VAT official said.
The VAT official said the NBR receives less than Tk 100 million in VAT annually from the superstores against their sale of products. Hailing the reduction of VAT, Zakir Hossain, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Superstore Owners Association, said the superstore owners had suffered a lot during the last two years due to increased VAT that had hiked the prices of their products.
"Around 30 per cent of our consumers switched to other grocery shops after they found a large gap in prices of essential products of the ordinary shops and those of superstores," he added. Some 15 superstores faced closure in the last five years after failing to survive due to lack of patronisation from the government, he added.
There are only five to six chain superstores in the country including Agora, Meena Bazar, Swapno, Nandan, Carrefamily that are selling quality and safe consumer products.
Mr Zakir said the superstores have ensured safe and non-adulterated products with the signing of an agreement with Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR).
"Consumer products enter the super shops after being verified on quality standard by the science laboratory," he added.
He blamed non-cooperation of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) over ensuring the quality of products for supershops.
VAT for superstores halved
Doulot Akter Mala | Published: February 08, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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