Sim Replacement Tax
Fin min to seek PM’s directive
The finance ministry will seek prime minister’s instruction on a long-standing dispute between the National Board of Revenue and four mobile phone operators over SIM replacement tax worth Tk 3,062.20 crore, officials concerned said. Finance minister AMA Muhith will also discuss the matter with prime minister Sheikh Hasina as she herself is now supervising the telecommunications ministry, they said.
As part of the finance ministry’s move, the revenue board is also going to send a paper to the prime minister describing the dispute for her consideration.
Officials of the value-added tax wing of the NBR have already started to prepare the paper in this connection following an instruction from the board chairman, Md Ghulam Hussain.
Large Taxpayer Unit (VAT) of the NBR has been claiming the tax from Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink and Airtel since early 2012 alleging that the operators dodged the tax through replacing old SIMs to new subscribers.
The operators, however, denied the allegation saying that they did not sell the SIMs to new customers rather they replaced those to original clients.
Later, the operators filed a writ petition with the High Court against the demand of the NBR, but the court sent back the case to the LTU on June 2013 asking to solve the issue with the operators within 120 days.
‘By this time, almost 500 days have passed, several reports have been submitted by the SIM replacement review committee formed by the LTU, few meetings of a high-powered inter-ministerial group led by finance minister were held, but the problem remained unsolved,’ a high official of the revenue board said.
Even the Anti-Corruption Commission has recently launched a probe into the possible irregularities regarding the issue.
The NBR member of the review committee revised the amount to Tk 3,010.99 crore after examining the documents provided by the operators, but mobile operators rejected the report.
According to the NBR final report, Grameenphone was supposed to pay Tk 1,562.29 crore, Banglalink Tk 762.34 crore, Robi Tk 647.24 crore and Airtel Tk 38.79 crore to the NBR as SIM replacement tax.
The finance minister has also suggested the NBR reduce the amount by around Tk 1,000 crore from the revised claim of Tk 3,010.99 crore as a gratitude to the operators to continue further discussion with them, the officials said.
The finance ministry has finally taken the initiative to place the issue to the prime minister as various moves by the NBR and the ministry failed to bring any result, the officials said.
-With New Age input
