Traders on Monday urged the authorities to take measures to stop harassment by field- level tax officials and intervention of the Auditor General's Office.
They also demanded that the tax authority should reward them for collecting VAT, instead of causing harassment.
"The traders are not VAT payers. They collect VAT from the retail customers and deposit it to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) offices. So the NBR and the AG offices should give incentives to the traders instead of harassing them intentionally," FBCCI Vice-President Helal Uddin said while speaking at a views-exchange meeting as special guest.
The Customs, Excise & VAT Commissionerate, Dhaka (South) organised the opinion exchange meeting with traders and businesses on the occasion of VAT Week (July 10-16) where field officials under the Commissionerate were present.
The NBR observes Value Added Tax (VAT) Day across the country today for the fourth consecutive years. It also starts the VAT Week simultaneously.
NBR member (VAT, Audit and Intelligence) Jahan Ara Siddiqui was present as the chief guest while Dhaka South Commissioner Shahnaz Parvin presided over the function. A number of field-level NBR officials and traders spoke at the meeting.
Mrs Jahan Ara Siddiqui said the new VAT Act would be very much VAT-payer friendly.
The new law will come into effect on July 1, 2015.
The NBR member said according to the new Act, VAT payers will have scope to submit VAT online centrally along with the facility of contacting the authority by phone, fax, email and internet.
She urged the traders to pay VAT and tax for development of the country and welfare of the citizens.
Helal Uddin said he does not know why the government decided to initiate new VAT Act while VAT payers are satisfied with the previous one.
He called for their official recognition by the government as the traders are doing outstanding job by collecting VAT on behalf of the NBR.
He sought legal measures if retail customers decline to pay VAT.
The FBCCI Vice-President also urged tax officials not to harass traders anymore. Rather, he urged the NBR to take mutually understandable process to increase VAT collection.
Mrs Shahnaz Parvin said harassment has decreased significantly over time and it will be zero one day.
She agreed with some traders that the friendly tax collection process in a more expanded tax net will help encourage people to pay more taxes. This will ultimately increase revenue collection and thus help implement development projects.
