Sim Replacement Tax Dispute
NBR asks for method by Friday to confirm SIM ownership
The revenue board on Wednesday asked the telecom regulator to determine a methodology by Friday (tomorrow) on how to ensure the authenticity of ownership of disputed mobile SIMs in order to settle a dispute over SIM replacement tax worth Tk 3,062 crore.
The National Board of Revenue made the decision at a meeting with the four mobile phone operators — Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink and Airtel — and members of the SIM replacement review committee.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission will have to determine the methodology for ensuring the ownership of disputed SIMs through analysing call details report of subscribers.
The meeting also decided that in line with the BTRC methodology the review committee would find out a formula by Sunday on how it would finalise the report on SIM replacement tax that the NBR has been demanding from the four operators since early 2012.
In line with the formula, the committee will re-finalise the report which it finalised on December 30 and submitted it to the NBR, officials concerned said.
The mobile operators rejected the report and did not sign on it saying that the representatives of the NBR formulated the report deviating from the agreed terms of references.
The LTU of NBR in July 2013 formed a tripartite committee consisting of representatives from the NBR, LTU, BTRC and four operators to set the payable amount evaluating the claim of LTU and documents submitted by the operators.
Finally on December 30, committee convener Al Amin Pramanik, also a commissioner of the NBR, submitted a report without having signatures of representatives from the operators and the BTRC as they took stand against the report.
According to the report, the NBR committee found dissimilarity in full name of subscribers in the documents about the subscribers submitted by the operators.
Analysing the documents, the amount of payable tax stood at Tk 3,010.99 crore from the initial demand for Tk 3,062.21 crore.
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.
-With New Age input
