NBR to strengthen scrutiny to check VAT evasion

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to strengthen its scrutiny to prevent VAT (Value Added Tax) evasion, aiming to achieve the revenue collection target it was given in the national budget for the current fiscal (2015-16), reports UNB. NBR chairman M Nojibur Rahman recently gave directives to field-level VAT offices in this regard apart from asking its scrutiny department to be proactive. “The NBR chairman has directed the field-level offices of the VAT wing to expedite their activities for achieving the [revenue collection] target for this fiscal,” a senior NBR official told the news agency. The NBR has got a gigantic target of Tk 176,370 crore revenue collection for the 2015-16 fiscal against Tk 135,028 last year.
This year, the target was set to collect Tk 64,971 crore from income tax, while Tk 64,262 crore from VAT and Tk 18,752 from import duty.  The target for export duty has been fixed at Tk 37 crore, excise duty at Tk 1,239 crore and supplementary duty at Tk 25,875. “To achieve the target, the NBR is very much cautious from the very beginning of the fiscal,” the NBR official said. He said the NBR chairman has asked the field offices to regularly check VAT-19 submit papers, VAT waivers for the entities that got VAT waivers, identify the evasion at source of VAT points and collect the VAT, and communicate with the Customs House for realising the advance trading VAT. In many countries, the NBR official said, the indirect tax is very negligible in the total revenue collection. “But this amount is very much high in our country. The VAT collection target for the previous year (2014-15) was Tk 48,264 crore while it is Tk 64,262 crore for the current fiscal.”
According to NBR statistics, a number of 750,797 entities are enlisted under the VAT and of them only 84,800 submit their VAT papers regularly, which is only five percent of the total numbers. The number of trading houses under the VAT coverage is around 100,000 and only 12,000 houses submit their VAT papers regularly. The rest of the trading houses collect VAT from the consumers, but do not pay the VAT to the NBR. “We assume that the amount of VAT evasion by such business houses is thousands of crores of taka,” the NBR official said. He also said the VAT and Supple-mentary Duty Act-2012 will be applicable from July next year. After implementing this Act, the collection of VAT will go online which will reduce hassles of the VAT payers apart from making submission of VAT papers easy. “Then it’ll be easy to take actions against the VAT evading entities,” he said.

 

NBR to strengthen scrutiny to check VAT evasion

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to strengthen its scrutiny to prevent VAT (Value Added Tax) evasion, aiming to achieve the revenue collection target it was given in the national budget for the current fiscal (2015-16), reports UNB. NBR chairman M Nojibur Rahman recently gave directives to field-level VAT offices in this regard apart from asking its scrutiny department to be proactive. The NBR chairman has directed the field-level offices of the VAT wing to expedite their activities for achieving the [revenue collection] target for this fiscal, a senior NBR official told the news agency. The NBR has got a gigantic target of Tk 176,370 crore revenue collection for the 2015-16 fiscal against Tk 135,028 last year. This year, the target was set to collect Tk 64,971 crore from income tax, while Tk 64,262 crore from VAT and Tk 18,752 from import duty. The target for export duty has been fixed at Tk 37 crore, excise duty at Tk 1,239 crore and supplementary duty at Tk 25,875. To achieve the target, the NBR is very much cautious from the very beginning of the fiscal, the NBR official said. He said the NBR chairman has asked the field offices to regularly check VAT-19 submit papers, VAT waivers for the entities that got VAT waivers, identify the evasion at source of VAT points and collect the VAT, and communicate with the Customs House for realising the advance trading VAT. In many countries, the NBR official said, the indirect tax is very negligible in the total revenue collection. But this amount is very much high in our country. The VAT collection target for the previous year (2014-15) was Tk 48,264 crore while it is Tk 64,262 crore for the current fiscal. According to NBR statistics, a number of 750,797 entities are enlisted under the VAT and of them only 84,800 submit their VAT papers regularly, which is only five percent of the total numbers. The number of trading houses under the VAT coverage is around 100,000 and only 12,000 houses submit their VAT papers regularly. The rest of the trading houses collect VAT from the consumers, but do not pay the VAT to the NBR. We assume that the amount of VAT evasion by such business houses is thousands of crores of taka, the NBR official said. He also said the VAT and Supple-mentary Duty Act-2012 will be applicable from July next year. After implementing this Act, the collection of VAT will go online which will reduce hassles of the VAT payers apart from making submission of VAT papers easy. Then itll be easy to take actions against the VAT evading entities, he said.