Sim Replacement Tax
NBR body, telcos in tussle over signing draft report
The review committee formed by the National Board of Revenue has yet to finalise its report on Tk 3,100-crore SIM replacement tax claimed from four mobile phone operators, even after six months of formation of the body, because of disputed stands by the parties, NBR officials said. According to the officials, the committee, comprised by representatives from the revenue board, mobile operators and the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, had prepared a draft report but the two other parties are declining to accept it.
They said that committee members on the NBR side signed the report and submitted it to the commissioner of the large taxpayer unit (value-added tax) of the NBR, who is the reporting authority of the committee.
The NBR officials said the BTRC analysed the authenticity of the subscribers of disputed SIMs in four criteria.
The committee found the difference in the amounts of taxes in different criteria ranging from the highest around Tk 3,000 crore and the lowest 40 per cent of initial claim.
On the other hand, officials of mobile operators — Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink and Airtel — and the BTRC said that they did not sign in the report as it was not finalised yet.
In this context, the NBR on Wednesday asked the mobile operators to sign the report with mentioning note of decent and if necessary, mention the reasons for not signing, a committee member told New Age.
The committee will meet on Sunday on the issue, he 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.
Since early 2012 the NBR has been demanding Tk 1,580 crore from GP, Tk 774 crore from Banglalink, Tk 664 crore from Robi and Tk 82 crore from Airtel in SIM replacement taxes, claiming that the operators had dodged the taxes.
In July 2013, the LTU (VAT) formed the committee to settle the dispute following directives of the High Court.
Association of Mobile Telephone Operators of Bangladesh secretary general TIM Nurul Kabir told New Age that still they were engaged in discussion on the BTRC’s analytical report.
‘The committee members could not come to a consensus over the BTRC’s report. The NBR prepared the report in the middle of discussion,’ he said.
He said, ‘Even they have not shared the report with us. So how do we sign in the report?’
Kabir said that representatives of mobile operators would decide about signing the report after holding discussions with their top authorities.
The NBR officials said that the BTRC representative in the committee also did not sign in the report saying that the report was not finalised yet.
They said that they were in pressure from finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith and the revenue board for submitting the report as early as possible.
In early December, the finance minister asked them to submit the report by one week but they could not finalise it due to ‘non-cooperation’ from the mobile operators, they said.
-With New Age input
