The revenue board is yet to provide names of the accountancy firms, against whom it earlier brought allegation of audit anomalies, and relevant evidence to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) for necessary actions, sources said.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) earlier on November 21, 2013 raised allegation of large anomalies against some chartered accountant (CA) firms in income-expenditure information in the audit reports, separately submitted to the revenue board and concerned banks.
Due to the anomalies, "the government is being deprived of due taxes in many cases," NBR chairman Md Ghulam Hussain said in a Demi Official (DO) letter issued to the ICAB president.
"--- the audit firms cannot avoid the responsibility of cooperating with the tax payers in such tax evasion," he said.
Mr Hussain sought effective measures from the ICAB president to prevent such malpractice of preparing false audit reports by the respective firms and CAs.
Thereafter, the ICAB president in a reply letter, requested the NBR chief to provide the 'list of Chartered Accountancy firms' if any, who are allegedly involved in false auditing, and the relevant evidences in favour of the accusation.
In the letter issued on November 27, 2013 to the NBR chairman, the ICAB chief sought the firms' names and evidence, so that it can probe into the allegations and take stern actions against them, if they are found guilty.
After that, three and half months already passed, but the ICAB didn't get any response to its November 27 letter, a high official of the ICAB confirmed.
Asked, Mahbub Ahmed Siddique FCA, ICAB director (technical), told the FE Thursday, "We are yet to get response from the revenue board over the issue."
Apart from the formal letter, the ICAB president also personally communicated to the NBR chief over telephone in this connection. "But, we didn't receive any response to the November 27 letter from the NBR till now," he added.
When contacted, Mohammad Kamruzzaman, private secretary of the NBR Chairman, told the FE Thursday, "I could not remember such a letter that you are referring issued much ago."
The ICAB president, in the letter, expressed firm commitment to take strict action against any kind of professional misconduct, if committed by the accountancy firms or CAs, for the greater interest of the 'noble occupation' and transparency in the country's economy.
"If the professional misconduct is proved, we will take immediate and stern punitive action against the guilty firms and/or chartered accountants (CAs); because, image of this noble profession cannot be tarnished because of activities of a few unscrupulous members, if have."
Without denying the NBR's allegation, the ICAB, however, cleared its own position saying that most CA firms maintain international standards; after that, few firms, like other profession, might have involved in such misconduct; but ICAB is always proactive to curb it and show 'no tolerance' to them.
The ICAB president sought the NBR's cooperation to find out the corrupt officials, punish them and build the country 'free from corruption'.
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