NBR moves to re-examine SIM replacement issue

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has moved to re-scrutinise the SIM replacement procedure in a bid to resolve the long-standing dispute with the country's four mobile phone operators.
It has already started working on the issue again with the cooperation of the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
The dispute between the tax authority and the cell phone operators arose in 2012 when the former asked for tax worth Tk 31 billion from the latter for SIM replacement. Taxmen demanded the tax claiming that the cell phone operators sold SIMs to the new subscribers in 2007-2011 period. But operators claimed those as being replacement to existing ones.
A committee, formed to settle the issue, has been assigned to review its final report by March 23 next.
A senior NBR official said the BTRC already recommended the procedure of examining the call data of those SIMs to find out its actual subscribers.
"The Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) will finalise a report by March 23 next after re-examining the process," he added.
Earlier, the wing prepared a final report on the SIM replacement issue finalising its demands for tax which was refuted by the cell phone operators.
The NBR decided to review the SIM replacement issue in a recent meeting held with the high-ups of the Grameenphone, the Robi, the Banglalink and the Airtel, he added. The Board took the move to re-examine the matter following instruction of Finance Minister AMA Muhith to resolve the issue soon.
Officials said the Minister expressed his concern over unusual delay in resolving the dispute with the mobile phone operators.
Taxmen formed the committee at the directive of the High Court (HC) following a writ petition filed by the cell phone companies against the tax demand. The committee had submitted its report on December 30 to the Commissioner of the LTU. However, mobile phone operators did not sign the report and sought intervention of the Finance Minister on this.