Tk21,596cr revenue stuck in 9,977 VAT-linked cases
Al Amin :
Despite revenue worth Tk 21,596 crore has been stuck in 9,977 Value Added Tax (VAT) -related cases, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) failed to bring pace in settling the cases.
The backlog has raised concerns among both traders and tax authorities and they mutually laid emphasis on the urgency of expediting the resolution of these cases for the collective benefit of the government and the business community.
Of the cases, some 21 cases are pending in Appeal Commissionerate, 284 cases in Appellate tribunal, 3,408 cases in High Court Division, 215 cases in Appeal Division, 3281 cases are certificate related, 21 cases in Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and 1354 cases are others, according to the NBR sources.
NBR officials said that they are trying to collect money through negotiating with the VAT paying firms along with carrying out drives against those who evade the indirect tax.
“But, in some cases, the firms become unable to pay big amounts of evaded taxes at a time and they take shelter of legal procedures to delay the payment. It takes years after years to settle the legal procedures,” they added.
The officials also said that the Attorney General’s Office handles these cases as the revenue board does not have its own panel of lawyers to handle the tax related cases in high courts.
NBR appoints a coordinating officer to coordinate the legal procedure. However, due to the frequent change of the coordinating officer, the tax related cases fall into a long process, they added.
The tax authorities requested the office of the attorney general several times to take steps to speed up the High Court hearing in a number of cases over tax disputes.
The officials, however, said that the VAT officials have been empowered in the budget of the current fiscal year to settle small cases. As a result, junior VAT officials can settle any dispute related to VAT evasion as well as the empowerment will help to reduce bureaucratic complexity.
In 2012, the NBR introduced Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to address revenue-related cases pending in the HC and Customs Appellate Tribunal.
