Tk 15b income tax from state entities targeted this year

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has set a target to collect Tk 15 billion from the state-owned entities as income tax this fiscal as it has streamlined tax collection procedures for them, officials said.
The government has incorporated a provision to collect corporate tax at a reduced rate of 25 per cent on the annual income of the entities from the current fiscal year.
However, income of the state-owned entities was always taxable and did never enjoy full exemption. According to the Income Tax Ordinance, the entities were under 37.5 per cent corporate tax rate until FY 2013-14.
A senior tax official said the NBR has been deprived of revenues due to unclear laws. Some of the state-owned entities were reluctant over payment of taxes while some obtained special permission from the NBR to pay tax at reduced rate of 25 per cent.
With the provision in the Finance Act-2014, the state-owned entities that were enjoying full exemption from payment of income tax under their respective laws will have to pay tax from FY 2014-15.
The NBR reduced the tax rate to resolve discrimination in tax rates between the state-owned entities and collect proper amount of taxes by clarifying the income tax law, the official said.   
"We have found some state-owned agencies obtaining permission to pay tax at reduced rate while some had to pay tax at higher rate at 37.5 per cent last year. To resolve such a discrimination, the NBR made the tax rate uniform for all," he said.  
However, there has been a long-standing row with the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the Civil Aviation and other such entities over payment of income taxes.
Also, there was a dispute with the Bangladesh Bridge Authority over payment of the corporate tax. Later, the NBR resolved it by reducing the tax rates to 25 per cent.
Recently, the BTRC refused to pay income tax to the NBR claiming that it doesn't have taxable income. The regulator claimed itself to be a non-taxable entity. It also referred to the Bangladesh Telecommunications Act 2001 that also exempted the BTRC from payment of taxes.
The senior tax official said the Income Tax Ordinance supersedes all other laws on imposition and withdrawal of taxes.
The tax at a rate of 25 per cent was slapped on all state-owned entities by the Jatiya Sangsad through national budget for FY 2014-15 and there is no scope to change the rules now, he said.
The BTRC recently sent a letter to NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain saying that it is just collecting non-tax revenue on behalf of the government.
A senior NBR official said the entities will have to pay tax from this year at 25 per cent rate as per the Finance Act-2014.
The revenue board has already assigned the large taxpayer unit of the NBR to look after the tax issues of the BTRC, they said.
Since the last three years, the NBR and the BTRC are locked in a row over payment of income tax.
In the FY 2012-2013, the NBR claimed around Tk 24.0 billion from the BTRC for the previous fiscal year.