Revenue Sharing
BTRC to get Tk 244cr VAT exemption
The National Board of Revenue on Sunday decided in principle to exempt the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission from paying Tk 244 crore as outstanding value-added tax on revenue sharing, officials said. The telecom regulator was supposed to collect the value-added tax from the six mobile companies and pay to the government exchequer. NBR officials at its regular board meeting held on Sunday said that the value-added tax at source on revenue sharing led to double taxation as mobile operators shared their revenue with the BTRC after deducting VAT.
The officials in the meeting, presided over by NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain, also said that the decision would be finalised later after further scrutinising the issue as there were some complexities in providing the exemption.
The revenue board, the BTRC and the mobile operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Airtel, Citycell and Teletalk — have been in tussle over the payment of the amount since December 2013.
Since then, Large Taxpayers Unit (VAT) of the NBR has been demanding Tk 244.38 crore from the BTRC as outstanding value-added tax on revenue sharing.
The revenue board had also suggested the BTRC should collect the value-added tax from the operators.
The BTRC had declined to pay the amount saying that it did not deduct VAT on revenue sharing from the operators. In May, the telecom regulator
again asked the mobile operators to pay the amount.
The mobile operators also declined to pay the due VAT saying that the revenue board exempted them from paying the value-added tax considering imposition of double taxation. So the amount which was demanded for previous period should be exempted, the telcos said.
Later the telecom regulator requested the revenue board to collect the value-added tax directly from the operators as the body had no legal mechanism to force the operators to pay the amount.
NBR officials in August 2013 had said the revenue board exempted the BTRC from deducting or collecting 15 per cent VAT at source on revenue sharing as it caused double taxation.
The mobile operators share their revenue with the BTRC after deducting VAT at the rate of 15 per cent on service charges from subscribers, they had said.
According to BTRC law, the mobile companies have to share 5.5 per cent of their revenue with the BTRC.
The NBR officials said the mobile operators did not pay the value-added tax amounting to Tk 244.38 crore at source on the shared revenue during the period between April 2012 and August 2013.
The LTU calculated the value-added tax including 2 per cent interest on the unpaid VAT.
-With New Age input
