Sim Replacement Tax
Govt in hurry to settle dispute with 4 telcos
The SIM replacement tax review committee is under huge pressure from the government to submit its (committee) report on the Tk 3,100-crore SIM replacement tax claimed by the National Board of Revenue from four mobile phone operators within a week though the committee is yet to finish its task, officials concerned said. 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.
Official sources said that finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith and the NBR were pressing the committee to submit the report as the government was desperately looking for a solution to the dispute with the mobile operators — Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink and Airtel — before its tenure expires in next January.
The four mobile operators participated in the 3G auction on September 9 on condition that the government would resolve the dispute quickly.
‘The committee is yet to finalise the interim report it submitted in August 27 as it is waiting for technical opinions from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission,’ said a committee member.
After getting BTRC’s opinions on accuracy of documents particularly call details reports submitted by the mobile operators as a proof regarding subscribers’ identification, the committee will be able to finalise the report, he said.
‘But the finance minister, the revenue board and the larger taxpayers unit (value-added tax) of the NBR have been pressing hard the committee to submit the report by the next week,’ said another member of the committee.
The revenue board in November 28 asked the commissioner of the LTU (VAT) to submit the report within one week saying that the finance minister expected that the report to be submitted by this time, officials said.
Grameenphone, a leading mobile phone operator in the country, has recently expressed its dissatisfaction over the issue saying that the committee became very slow.
Grameenphone said that it participated in the 3G auction being hopeful seeing the interim report but after the auction the activities of the committee almost came to a standstill.
Under the circumstance, LTU (VAT) commissioner Abdul Kafi on Monday asked the convenor of the committee to intervene immediately to address the slow pace of the committee and submit the report soon.
He asked the committee members to work actively following BTRC’s technical opinion on the dispute and to finalise the report quickly.
A committee member told New Age that the committee in November 16 sought technical opinion from the BTRC on accuracy of documents particularly call details report submitted by the mobile operators as proofs of their claims.
The BTRC is to give opinions whether the documents are accurate or fabricated, he said.
Committee members said that it would depend on getting BTRC’s opinion whether the committee would be able to submit the report soon.
They said that they were expecting BTRC opinion in the next week.
The BTRC failed to give technical opinion on the issue by the deadline of November 15, they said.
Officials of the BTRC said that they had completed physical investigation on the authenticity of subscribers through visiting mobile operators’ servers and they would be able to submit their opinion by the next week.
Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh secretary general TIM Nurul Kabir said that they were also concerned over delay in settling the issue.
‘Mobile operators expect that the NBR will resolve the issue without further delay following the terms of reference set for the committee,’ he said.
He said that identity verification of subscribers was a difficult task in Bangladesh in absence of automated tools that resulted delay in finalising the report.
The Large Taxpayers Unit (value-added tax) of the NBR in early August formed the SIM replacement review committee with representation from the NBR, mobile operators and the BTRC for providing recommendations in three weeks to settle the dispute after the High Court directed the LTU commissioner to resolve the issue within 120 working days.
The commissioner has already sought for time extension from the court as the deadline expired on November 7.
The NBR claimed a total of Tk 1,580 crore from GP, Tk 774 crore from Banglalink, Tk 664 crore from Robi and Tk 82 crore from Airtel.
-With New Age input
