2G Spectrum Charge
BTRC must pay Tk 269cr VAT of 4 telcos, decides NBR
The National Board of Revenue has decided that Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission would have to pay Tk 269.17 crore in value-added tax on the third instalment of spectrum charge paid by four mobile phone operators to the telecom regulator for renewal of their 2G licences.
The revenue board at a board meeting on November 9 took the decision after the large taxpayers unit (VAT) of the NBR sought intervention of the board on realising the dues from the BTRC, officials of the NBR said.
The LTU (VAT) in December last year asked the BTRC to pay the unpaid amount which was supposed to collect from Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell in VAT on the third instalment of spectrum charge for 2G licence renewal.
Officials said the BTRC collected only spectrum charge from the operators though it was supposed to collect the VAT at source on the spectrum charge also from the operators as a VAT deducting authority.
According to the VAT Act-1991, now, the BTRC will have to pay the VAT to the national exchequer as the regulator failed to collect it from the operators despite being responsible to do so, they said.
They said that the mobile operators would pay the amount as they did not pay it to the BTRC at the time of instalment payment.
But the responsibility of collecting and depositing the amount to the government exchequer goes to the BTRC, they said adding that now it was up to the BTRC how it would fulfil the requirement of the law.
Earlier, at a meeting with the LTU (VAT) the mobile phone operators said that they would pay the amount if the BTRC issue VAT challan no 11 so that operators could get rebate on the amount.
They paid VAT on the second instalment of spectrum charge for 2G licence renewal but they did not get rebate.
NBR officials said that the BTRC would have to be registered as a VAT payer under the revenue board for issuing VAT challan-11.
BTRC officials said that they were trying to recover the amount from the operators but it had no
legal power to force the operators to pay the money.
The BTRC can neither take punitive action against the operators nor freeze their bank accounts to collect the money, they said.
On the other hand, it cannot proceed further on the issue as it remains pending at the High Court, they said.
LTU officials said that though operators filed a writ petition with the High Court, the court did not put any ban on collecting the VAT on spectrum charge.
In this context, the LTU (VAT) sought directives from the revenue board on collecting the unpaid VAT on more than Tk 2,000 crore in spectrum charge which the mobile operators paid to the BTRC in August last year.
The board meeting chaired by NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain decided that the demand issued to the BTRC was lawful and appropriate.
‘We will take step to realise the amount from the BTRC after formally getting the decision of the board,’ a high official of the LTU (VAT) told New Age on Sunday.
The LTU may even freeze bank accounts of the BTRC upon getting consent from the board, he said.
-With New Age input
