The National Board of Revenue on Tuesday offered the mobile phone operators to resolve the dispute over replacement SIM tax worth Tk 3,100 crore outside
the court which is pending for more than one-and-a-half years.
Leaders of the Association of Mobile Telephone Operators of Bangladesh met the NBR chairman on the day with a demand to resolve different tax related issues of the telecom industry before the 3G spectrum auction on September 2.
‘We offered the mobile operators to settle issues related to unpaid tax outside the court through alternative dispute resolution mechanism to resolve them quickly. They assured us they would consider the offer,’ NBR chairman Ghulam Hossain told New Age after the meeting.
The NBR made the proposal as the High Court sent back the case related to SIM replacement tax to the Large Taxpayers Unit (VAT) on June 6 and directed the revenue authorities to solve the issue with the four mobile operators—Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Airtel—within 120 days.
In early 2012, 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 saying that the operators did not pay the amounts as SIM replacement tax.
Out of unpaid SIM replacement tax, Tk 2,000 crore is original tax while more than Tk 1,000 crore are in interest and late fees, NBR officials said.
They said while sending back the case, the High Court made an observation saying that mobile operators went to the court on these issues in premature condition as there was a chance to resolve the case with the commissioner of NBR.
The HC also directed the operators to go back to the NBR to settle the case.
Now the commissioner of Large Taxpayers Unit (VAT) of NBR will arrange hearing with the mobile operators in order to solve it, they said.
‘If the operators agree to settle the issue through negotiation with the help of facilitator under ADR mechanism, both parties will move forward accordingly,’ an NBR senior official said.
Meeting sources said the operators demanded withdrawal of the SIM replacement tax and wanted rebate on VAT for 2G license renewal fees.
The operators also demanded to allow them to show the subsidy on SIM as allowable expense in their financial statements.
NBR officials said that the revenue board did not agree to provide subsidy as allowable expense saying that subsidy can not be expense as operators give it as their marketing strategy.
Earlier in the morning, the NBR chairman along with NBR members Syed Aminul Karim (income tax policy) and Jahangir Hossain (VAT policy) met Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission chairman Sunil Kanti Bose to discuss the issues.
Meeting sources said the BTRC chairman also agreed to solve the tax related disputes through ADR.
NBR officials said the pressure from the mobile operators was mounting recently as they want to cash in on every opportunity before 3G auction.
‘The operators know the 3G auction is important for the government’s revenue collection. So the mobile companies are trying to turn different pending issues to their favour,’ a senior NBR official present in the meeting told New Age.
Mobile operators said Tuesday’s meeting was positive but yet to bring any result to encourage them to participate in 3G auction.
‘The NBR proposed some methods to resolve the issues which we also knew. We will discuss the proposals and decide accordingly,’ a senior official of a mobile company told New Age.
He said the VAT rebate on 2G license renewal still remained under regulatory deadlock.
BTRC officials said the mobile phone operators last week requested the telecom regulator to resolve the pending disputes before August 1 which is the last date for application submission for 3G.
-With New Age input
