The National Board of Revenue has violated its own rules by making public information relating to income tax of Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus.
On Monday, the tax authorities released a report to the media, in which they said the microcredit pioneer had earned Tk 50.61 crore between July 2004 and June 2011 and enjoyed a Tk 12.65 crore tax exemption on the income.
The report, submitted at a cabinet meeting on the day, also specified Yunus’s yearly income and the amount of tax he was exempted from each year within the period.
NBR Chairman Md Ghulam Hussain yesterday, however, said that according to the Income Tax Law, no information about income tax of a taxpayer should be made available in the public domain.
His comments came a day after seven independent companies criticised the NBR report that said they had used the brand image of Grameen Bank to obtain tax exemption illegally.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, the companies, which do not have legal ties with Grameen Bank, termed the allegations completely baseless and said they had submitted income tax returns regularly and paid taxes accordingly.
The companies are Grameen Fisheries and Livestock Foundation, Grameen Capital Management Ltd, Grameen Communications, Grameen Shakti, Grameen Udyog, Grameen Trust and Grameen Kalyan.
NBR in the report could not give any evidence that Yunus as a wage earner had obtained the tax exemption facility illegally, but said the Grameen Bank founder had not taken permission from the government before receiving money as a “public servant” in honoraria, awards and royalties from foreign sources.
-With The Daily Star input
