Collect revenues from FB, Google, online platforms

High Court orders govt

The High Court (HC) yesterday ordered the government to realise all taxes, including source tax, from all online transactions, advertisements, domain sales and licence fees from all internet-based platforms such as search engines Google and Yahoo, e-commerce platform Amazon, social networking platform Facebook and video sharing site YouTube. The HC bench, comprising Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal, also asked the government to form a special committee to assess the quantum of their financial transactions in recent years and to submit an assessment report to the court by June 25.

The HC bench also issued a rule asking the government to explain in four weeks why their inaction in realising appropriate taxes, value-added tax (VAT) and other charges from the revenues earned by different digital platforms from Bangladesh should not be declared illegal.

The secretaries to the finance, law, post and telecommunications and information ministries, the governor of the

Bangladesh Bank (BB), the chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the president of Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) and representatives of Google and YouTube have been made respondents, who have to reply to the rule within four weeks.

The HC bench came up with the order and the rule court issued rules in response to a writ petition filed by six Supreme Court (SC) lawyers seeking immediate measures from the government for realising appropriate taxes, VAT and other charges from the revenues earned by different digital platforms from Bangladesh.

The petitioners alleged that digital platforms like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, YouTube and their ilk have been progressively earning substantial amounts from Bangladesh since 2007, but do not pay any tax against the earnings. They also said in the petition that they have observed that these global digital companies are sucking huge amounts of money from Bangladesh but they do not have any information as to whether or not they are paying due taxes. Mohammad Humayun Kabir Pallab stood for the petitioners and deputy attorney-general Motahar Hossain Saju stood for the state.

Collect revenues from FB, Google, online platforms

High Court orders govt

The High Court (HC) yesterday ordered the government to realise all taxes, including source tax, from all online transactions, advertisements, domain sales and licence fees from all internet-based platforms such as search engines Google and Yahoo, e-commerce platform Amazon, social networking platform Facebook and video sharing site YouTube. The HC bench, comprising Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal, also asked the government to form a special committee to assess the quantum of their financial transactions in recent years and to submit an assessment report to the court by June 25. The HC bench also issued a rule asking the government to explain in four weeks why their inaction in realising appropriate taxes, value-added tax (VAT) and other charges from the revenues earned by different digital platforms from Bangladesh should not be declared illegal. The secretaries to the finance, law, post and telecommunications and information ministries, the governor of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the president of Newspaper Owners Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) and representatives of Google and YouTube have been made respondents, who have to reply to the rule within four weeks. The HC bench came up with the order and the rule court issued rules in response to a writ petition filed by six Supreme Court (SC) lawyers seeking immediate measures from the government for realising appropriate taxes, VAT and other charges from the revenues earned by different digital platforms from Bangladesh. The petitioners alleged that digital platforms like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, YouTube and their ilk have been progressively earning substantial amounts from Bangladesh since 2007, but do not pay any tax against the earnings. They also said in the petition that they have observed that these global digital companies are sucking huge amounts of money from Bangladesh but they do not have any information as to whether or not they are paying due taxes. Mohammad Humayun Kabir Pallab stood for the petitioners and deputy attorney-general Motahar Hossain Saju stood for the state.