Staff Reporter :
At least Tk 831 crore taxes of some 44 private universities remain long-overdue.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) to get the huge amount of money from these universities.
One week earlier, the NBR issued letter to the universities asking them to pay due tax.
On Monday NBR has freeze the accused universities bank accounts. The revenue board has realised Tk 250 million in back taxes in the last seven days from some of them through suspension of their bank transactions, said officials in the government’s revenue administration.
Under the ongoing drive the tax authority had frozen bank accounts of some 44 universities across the country a week ago to realise dues pending since the 2011-12 fiscal year.
Still bank accounts of 31 of the default universities remained blocked.
Following the move, the private universities have started responding and paying the dues to the exchequer.
Such cracking action by the NBR came following a recent order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on tax payment by private universities at a rate of 15 per cent.
A total of 52 private universities are under the scanner of tax-zone 11.
Of them, North South University has an unpaid amount of taxes worth Tk 1.80 billion, pending since 2017-18.
A senior tax official has said that the bank account of NSU remained frozen as the university authorities have yet to pay any amount out of its dues.
However, he said, “Bank accounts of 11 universities have been unfrozen after they had paid part of their dues.”
The tax authorities’ steps have prompted other private universities to rush to the NBR and clear dues to make their bank accounts free from freezing.
The official, however, said the tax zone sent soft reminders to all 52 universities after the verdict of the Appellate Division but many did not respond to the letter.
“We haven’t frozen the bank accounts of Brac University as they responded with documents on our reminder,” he says.
However, Brac University has pending dues worth Tk 946 million, the second-highest after NSU.
Bank accounts of Bangladesh University of Business and Technology (BUBT), Green University and Millennial University have been freed after they paid a part of their taxes.
The BUBT authorities have paid Tk 3.7 million, Green University Tk 5.0 million, Millennial University Tk 0.4 million, Daffodil University Tk 50 million, East West University Tk 280 million, World University Tk 65 million, and Northern University Tk 50 million.
“We launched the move to make private universities tax-compliant, not to create barriers on their operation,” the tax official said.
