GB exempted from Tk 770m back pay in income tax

The beleaguered microfinance pioneer Grameen Bank (GB) has finally been relieved of a debt burden of Tk 770 million in unpaid income tax.
With retrospective effect, the National Board of Revenue has issued an order exempting the GB from the income-tax back pay, officials said.
The tax exemption has been provided for a left-out period of January to June 2011.
The NBR issued a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO), dated May 07, 2015, allowing the micro-credit bank to enjoy the waiver.
Delay in taking decision on tax-waiver by the authorities concerned had created the backlog for GB, which had witnessed brawls and legal battles between its founder, Nobel laureate Prof Mohammad Yunus, and the government authorities.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning microfinance organisation has been enjoying tax-exemption facility since its inception in 1983. The government provides the exemption to the GB in different phases.
Tenure of the existing tax-exemption facility for GB is to expire on December 2015. The GB has already requested the government to extend the period of tax-breaks by five years until 2020.
Tax officials said the longstanding issue was resolved with the issuance of the SRO. The GB has been urging the government since then for the exemption. It was facing complexities in preparing its financial report for the tax demand.
In December 2010, a timeframe of tax-exemption had expired. But the decision of extending the tax-benefit further was delayed. "Due to the time lag, the period from January 2011 to June 2011 had been left out of the tax-benefit," one tax official said.
In June 2012, the NBR again offered tax exemption for four and a half years, until December 2015, with retrospective effect since July 2011.
Tax officials had demanded income tax from the GB management for that six-month period. Following the taxmen's demand the GB had paid Tk 215 million for the period.
The officials said the paid tax cannot be refunded to the GB but it can be adjusted with the payable tax, if any, of the GB.
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