The revenue board has armed the VAT intelligence with authority to recheck suspect business tax records already audited by the VAT-field offices.
Officials said the VAT intelligence team could launch such re-audit on the basis of authentic information about anomalies.
 Value Added Tax (VAT) audit, intelligence and investigation directorate now can audit the transaction records of business units under the VAT field offices that already have been audited by the commissionerates concerned.
The measure, meant for plugging revenue leaks to meet set revenue target to finance growing government budget, has been taken under a decision made at a recent internal meeting of the board.
 Following the decision, some businesses may face double or triple audit by the VAT officials under the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
 Talking to the FE, a senior official of the VAT wing said double audit might be done in some cases where the VAT officials will suspect evasion involving large amounts of revenue or underhand dealing between officials and businessmen.
 "In some cases, VAT officials in field offices concerned connive with the businesses in evading payment of the tax they collected from consumers. VAT intelligence team will audit in those cases on the basis of specific information," he said.
 However, the directorate will keep coordination with the commissionerates at the time of preparing its audit list.
 Another official of the VAT unit said two audits should not be run in the same business unit simultaneously for the same period.
 "Coordination is needed between the VAT intelligence team and field-level VAT offices prior to doing audit," he added.
 He said potential of VAT collection is higher than the existing collection as many businesses are avoiding payment of the tax.
 The meeting, held at the National Board of Revenue (NBR), also decided to prioritise the manufacturing units at the time of monitoring, finding those vulnerable to revenue leakage.
 Some 10 commercial importers involved in importing industrial raw materials will be closely monitored and audited by the VAT intelligence, it decided.
 The VAT authority also decided to hold VAT officials concerned to account for not registering the business units running activity for long without taking Business Identification Number (BIN).
 The NBR instructed the VAT intelligence directorate to categorize the business units on the basis of revenue risk as high, middle and low criteria.
 A database will also be developed on the units.
 The VAT intelligence has conducted several crackdowns against the evaders who include air- conditioned tailoring shops, large coaching centres, and 11 units of Star Kebab.
 However, the unit needs joint-and additional director-general-level officials to intensify its drive.
 In the meeting, the directorate decided to send a letter to the NBR with the demand for the senior-level officials for the directorate.
doulot_akter@yahoo.com
VAT moles may recheck suspect business tax status
Doulot Akter Mala | Published: October 06, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
Share if you like