NBR seeks info from banks

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has initiated move to scrutinise the bank accounts of the country's telecom operators for assessing their tax returns for fiscal year (FY) 2014-15.
The Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) under the income tax wing recently sent letters to the country's commercial banks to furnish bank account details of telecom operator Airtel and Robi, banking sources said.
In the letter, the LTU requested all the commercial banks to send details of bank accounts of the two telecom operators for 2013 calendar year.  
Earlier, the wing also sought detailed account information from the banks of the largest telecom operator Grameenphone for the year 2013.
According to the existing income tax ordinance, 1984, it is mandatory for the commercial banks to provide bank account information to the Director General of the Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) and the Deputy Commissioner of Taxes (DCT) if they desire so.
"Provided that where any person has, without any reasonable cause, failed to furnish information as required under section 113, the Director General, Central Intelligence Cell or the Deputy Commissioner of Taxes may impose a penalty of Tk 25,000 and in case of a continuing default a further penalty of Tk 500 for each day," the ordinance said.
NBR sources said the bank account information would be verified for regular assessment of tax returns of the previous year to examine the shown income of the companies.
Grameenphone is the corporate taxpayer that pays the highest amount of income tax.
There are six telecom operators in the country. These are Grameenphone, Robi, Airtel, Banglalink, Citycell and state-owned Teletalk.
The NBR sources said except Grameenphone and Robi, none of the telecom operators has shown profits in their income tax returns.  
As per a recent decision of the NBR high-ups, the bank account information of all the telecom operators might be examined in phases to verify the shown and claimed losses on their income.
Talking to the FE Tuesday, Ekram Kabir, vice president in-charge of communication and corporate responsibility of Robi, said the company will comply with the NBR's requirement and go by the system.  
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