Tk 21,768cr VAT arrears stuck for backlog of court cases

Al Amin :
Tk 21,768 crore has been stuck as Value-Added Tax (VAT) arrears due to the ongoing cases at different courts, according to a data of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
The data showed that the business firms have filed 10,135 cases different courts against the NBR’s decisions until March this year with view to either delaying payment or getting respite from the payment.
Among the cases, Tk 14,099 crore has been hanged on due to 3,378 pending cases at the High Court Division and Tk 1,777 crore for 255 pending cases at the Appeal Division.
Besides, Tk 865 crore for 319 cases at Appellate Tribunal and Tk 1.79 crore for 13 cases at Appeal Commissionerate, Tk 268 crore for certification cases and Tk 3,861 crore for other cases have been stuck, the data said.

The NBR report also claimed that the businesses collected the VAT from their clients but they did not deposit to the public exchequer and have filed cases for making the payment delay.
On the other hand, NBR cannot be able to play active role in handling cases due to manpower shortage. As a result, the cases are remaining unsettled years after years and the government is depriving of huge amount money, it said.

Wishing anonymity, an official of the NBR told The New Nation,

“We conduct drives in different business entities to unearth VAT evasion. When we identify a big amount of evasion, the firms don’t want to pay the money at a time and want to make the payment delay and they lodge cases as it takes times to dispose.”

“Besides, the NBR does not have lawyer panel in the high court to run the revenue related cases. The office of the Attorney General carries out the cases,” he said.
“NBR appoints a coordinating officer for maintaining liaison and the revenue and due to the frequent changes of the coordinating officer related cases hang on,” the official said.
“The tendency of backlog of court cases may reduce in days to come as the VAT officials have been empowered in the current budget and in some cases, the officials can be able to settle the VAT evasion cases instantly,” he said.

Meanwhile, the huge amount of VAT arrears is putting adverse impact on revenue collection and the VAT authority fails to reach the annual target.
NBR thinks that there is a concern over disruption of normal economic activities in the current fiscal year due to the ongoing geo-political tension.
It will be very difficult to achieve the ambitious revenue collection target set by the by the government, if the NBR fails to dispose of revenue related cases in a sooner possible time, the revenue board observed.
The NBR has been set Tk 4.30 lakh crore revenue collection target for the current fiscal year.