Sim Replacement Tax Dispute
NBR blames telcos, BTRC for non-coop in report finalising
The National Board of Revenue has blamed four mobile phone operators and the telecom regulator for non-cooperation in preparing the final report on settling the Tk 3,062-crore SIM replacement tax claimed from the operators.m The NBR said the four mobile operators and the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission did not sign the final report of the committee formed to settle the issue after the court sent it back to the revenue board for a solution.
The commissioner of the Large Taxpayers Unit (VAT) forwarded the report to the revenue board for taking necessary steps in this regard, NBR officials said.
The four mobile operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel — however, denied the allegation saying they were cooperating with the committee to amicably settle the dispute.
The members of the committee from the LTU rather prepared a made-up report deviating from the agreed terms of reference of the committee, operators said.
The LTU in July 2013 formed a tripartite committee consisting of representatives from the NBR, LTU, BTRC and four operators to set the payable amount evaluating the claim of LTU and documents submitted by the operators.
Finally in December 30, committee convener Al Amin Pramanik, also a commissioner of the NBR, submitted a report without signature of representatives from the operators and the BTRC as they took stands against the report.
According to the report, prepared based on a technical committee report of the BTRC, the NBR committee found dissimilarity in full name of subscribers in the documents about the subscribers submitted by the operators.
Analysing the documents, the amount of payable tax stood at Tk 3,010.99 crore from the initial demand for Tk 3,062.21 crore.
Of the amounts, the NBR demand came down to Tk 1,562.29 crore from Tk 1,580.44 crore from GP, Tk 762.34 crore from Tk 774.05 crore from Banglalink, Tk 647.24 crore from Tk 655 crore from Robi and Tk 39.12 crore from Tk 52.74 crore from Airtel.
NBR officials said that the committee was bound to submit the report without signature of representatives of operators and the BTRC as they declined to sign the report even with a note of decent.
The BTRC committee in its report said that the technical parameters could have an idea about the user of a SIM before and after replacement, but there is no way to be sure without proper paper evidence.
The BTRC report also said that the mobile operators failed to provide some data which were required for proper verification.
Grameenphone failed to provide any CDR data before 2010, so the BTRC committee could not cross match the data for the period, said the report.
It also said that Banglalink provided incomplete data of a specific field while Airtel’s CDR failed to provide incoming call record, subscribers’ handset IMIE number and some system log before the committee.
Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh secretary general TIM Nurul Kabir told New Age that the allegation against the operators was totally baseless as they provided the committee with all-out cooperation to settle the dispute.
‘Representatives from the NBR side in the committee prepared a made-up report excluding us and deviating from the agreed TOR. So operators did not agree with the report,’ he said adding that operators had repeatedly requested the NBR for following the agreed TOR.
The NBR has been demanding the amount in tax from Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink and Airtel since early 2012 claiming that the operators had dodged the taxes through selling old SIMs to new clients. The mobile companies, however, denied the allegation saying that they did not sell any SIM to new client but replaced the old SIMs for the original customers.
-With New Age input
