Workshop on e-payment of customs duty, VAT
Friday, 29 July 2022
Citibank, N.A. Bangladesh recently hosted a client awareness programme on 'e-Payment of Customs Duty and VAT Online' with participation from local and global corporate and regulators, says a press release.
Citi has been one of the leading banks in promoting digital payments of Customs Duty and VAT for its institutional clients.
Two keynote speakers from Bangladesh Bank and National Board of Revenue presented their papers on the topic.
The event also showcased some of Citi's new and innovative solutions, which are aimed at significantly improving and simplifying clients' payment processing experience.
Digitisation of Customs Duty and VAT payments have been a long awaited ask from industry stakeholders as part of trade facilitation. These payments have been processed through manual cheques historically that warrant long time and large number of resources.
Citi's solutions in collaboration with Bangladesh Bank, National Board of Revenue and Sonali Bank have been beneficial to the clients to automate entire process starting from payment initiation reporting to tax payment confirmation.
Apart from offering traditional online banking options for payments of various tax types, Citi has recently implemented few Host-to-Host connectivity solutions that allow the clients to trigger Customs Duty payments from their ERP (Enterprise Resource Platform) without even needing them to log into bank's online banking platform.
N Rajashekaran (Shekar), Managing Director and Citi Country Officer, inaugurated the event and highlighted Citi's collaboration with the clients and the regulators over the years to promote the digital ecosystem.
Moinul Huq, Head of Treasury and Trade Solutions said, "We endeavor to achieve scale, speed and simplicity in the area of e-Payment of Customs Duty and VAT".
Shams Zaman, Head of Banking Capital Markets and Advisory said, "Bangladesh has been undergoing fast-paced digital transformation and Citi is on strong footing to partner the clients for jointly navigating through these critical phases".