NBR making list of country\\\'s corporate houses to check VAT evasion

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is preparing a list of country's corporate houses including bank, insurance, cement and pharmaceutical companies to check VAT evasion, officials said.
They said a good number of private companies of the country have been evading VAT (value added tax) despite making hefty profits that is helping 'black money' generation.
 "The revenue board has decided to examine documents of more than 150 local and joint venture companies if they are involved in VAT evasion or not", an official of the Directorate of Audit, Intelligence and Investigation, VAT told the FE.  
He said in recent times NBR has found a good number of corporate offices that have been engaged in VAT evasion.
He said although VAT has been set as the largest source of earning revenue for the current fiscal year (FY) 2013-2014, many of the business organisations are evading VAT payment.
In the current fiscal the NBR fails to bag its targeted revenue from VAT. For this it has been forcing the NBR officials to be more cautious for collecting VAT flawlessly, he added.
"The audit intelligence and investigation department under the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has identified 33 top taxpaying companies which evaded VAT worth Tk 230 million in last six months (July-December)", Tasmina Hossain, Additional Director General (ADG) of Directorate of Audit Intelligence and Investigation, VAT told the FE.
She said now they are examining documents of more than 100 local and joint venture companies who are involved in evading VAT.
After examination NBR has found in last two years more than 256 corporate companies including banks, insurance, beverage, food, ceramic, chemicals, particle board and pharmaceutical companies were involved in  evading VAT, she informed.
She said that to reach the revenue collection target set by the government for the current fiscal, the board is working relentlessly.
The board has adopted various initiatives to check VAT evasion and asked the field offices to work hard. As part of its effort; the board put its watchful eye on the giant companies, she added.
They had initiated many efforts to catch the giant corporate organisations evading VAT, he informed.
Former chairman of NBR Abdul Mozid told the FE "I appreciate the initiative of NBR to check VAT evasion".
He said, "We know many corporate offices of the country are involved in VAT evasion, NBR should take stern action against the companies found guilty".
The government has set a target for NBR to collect Tk1.36 trillion as revenue in FY 2013-2014 of which Tk 510 billion as VAT, Tk 483 billion as income tax and Tk 357 billion as duty and Tk 10 billion in other taxes.