The National Board of Revenue on Sunday turned down a plea of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission seeking exemption from paying tax on its income and asked it to pay tax, officials said. They said that BTRC was asked to pay tax at the rate of 25 per cent on its total income. BTRC has repeatedly declined to pay tax to the revenue board claiming that it has no taxable income and requested for withdrawal of the provision for imposing the taxes on the income of the commission stipulated in the budget for the current fiscal year.
Claiming itself as a non-taxable entity, the telecom regulator repeatedly claimed that it had no income rather it just collected non-tax revenue from mobile phone operators and other companies related to telecommunication services on behalf of the government.
It deposited the collected money to the government exchequer, BTRC said in its last letter to the NBR on August 19.
The revenue board in the budget reduced taxes to 25 per cent from the standard 35 per cent on income of autonomous bodies including BTRC, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, WASA and other organisations.
Some of them including BTRC and CAAB earlier did not pay taxes citing different excuses including claiming themselves as non-taxable entities.
In FY 2012-13, the NBR claimed around Tk 2,400 crore from the BTRC for the previous fiscal year.
In a letter to BTRC, the revenue board on Sunday said that according to the income tax ordinance corporations created through law like the BTRC were taxable entities and they were not exempted from paying income tax.
There is a scope for considering the BTRC as non-taxable entity as it deposited surplus revenue collected from telecom sector to Bangladesh Bank after meeting its six months’ expenses.
According to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Act-2001, BTRC deposits the surplus amount of revenue collected from the sector as revenue sharing, licence fees, spectrum fees and other fees to the government exchequer after meeting its expenses for six months.
The other bodies created through law like Dhaka WASA, Chittagong Port Authority and Petrobangla are also considered as taxable entities and they pay taxes, the letter pointed out.
Newly introduced 10 per cent advance income tax that the mobile phone operators will deduct while making payment to the BTRC as revenue sharing, spectrum assignment fee, licence acquisition fee, application fee, annual licence fee, licence renewal fee, social obligation fund and other fees and charges will be considered adjustable with the final tax of BTRC, NBR said.
In this context, BTRC was requested to pay income tax and cooperate with the NBR in revenue collection process, it said.
NBR officials argued that the parliament imposed the tax. So BTRC will have to pay the tax.
-With New Age input
