NBR forms 5-member body to launch new VAT software

Doulot Akter Mala The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has formed a five-member committee in a bid to introduce the new VAT software to the big businesses, paying tax above Tk 5.0 million. The revenue board is set to introduce the new software in big businesses from January 1, 2012 to ensure proper collection of value added tax (VAT). According to an order of the NBR, issued on November 16, the committee will be responsible for six types of job. Farid Uddin, NBR member (VAT), issued the order to all of the customs, excise and VAT offices across the country for taking necessary preparation in this regard. The high-powered committee, headed by commissioner of customs, excise and VAT office Dhaka (south) Md Abdul Kafi, will scrutinise the applications of the software developers and suppliers. The committee will also conduct field visits to the software companies, applied for the task, to assess their expertise. The revenue board has set a 12-point eligibility criterion for the companies to apply for the task of developing the software. The NBR committee will hold its first meeting this week to set a work-plan for selection of software company. It can also make recommendation on suspension or cancellation of the activities of the selected software company, if any fault in their software is found. Officials said around 1,200 large businesses including banks, insurance companies, mobile phone operators, hotels, restaurants, manufacturing companies, chain shops etc will come under the network of the new software. They said most of the businesses use their own software to handle sales transaction data. They will have to install the new software as prescribed by the NBR. VAT officials said the government is losing a substantial amount of revenue every year due to absence of recorded data in companies. They said a number of companies maintain two account system to conceal their actual sales data and evade tax. They said installation of the new software will stop tax evasion and increase VAT collection by manifold.