Sim Replacement Tax Dispute
Telcos seek Muhith’s intervention
Country’s four mobile phone operators have sought urgent intervention of finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith in resolving their dispute with the National Board of Revenue over SIM replacement tax worth Tk 3,062 crore that the NBR has been demanding since early 2012. In a joint letter wrote to the finance minister on Sunday, the four operators — Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink and Airtel — said that the issue had now come to a stage where the minister’s intervention was necessary.
They also alleged that representative of the NBR of SIM replacement tax review committee formed to settle the dispute prepared a ‘one-sided’ final report deviating from agreed terms of reference.
The operators sought guidance in resolving the issue and wanted appointment of the minister to discuss it.
‘After the 3G auction, the NBR unilaterally revised the ToR and drafted the final report including one-sided opinion. Operators were not even given the scope to participate in finalising the report,’ the letter mentioned.
Earlier in another letter to Muhith, the operators urged his intervention in ensuring that the agreed ToR is followed in resolving the dispute.
They also demanded that the committee should cancel the final report prepared by the representatives of the NBR in the committee and formulate a fresh report on the basis of the interim report to resolve the issue.
The report was finalised by the NBR without participation of other stakeholders, they said.
Officials of the NBR, however, denied the allegation of deviating from the ToR. They rather blamed the telecom operators for their non-cooperation in preparing the final report on settling the SIM replacement tax.
‘The representatives of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh, the four operators and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in the committee did not sign the report despite repeated efforts. Even they remained absent at the meetings called for finalising the report,’ a high official of the NBR told New Age on Thursday.
He said that they even did not make any comment on the draft report sent to them.
AMTOB secretary general TIM Nurul Kabir told New Age that operators had cooperated with committee from the very beginning of the process to amicably settle the dispute but the members of NBR in the committee did not follow the agreed ToR.
The dispute should be resolved immediately through revising the process as the telecom industry is the biggest contributor to the national exchequer in terms of paying taxes and drawing huge foreign direct investment, he said.
The LTU in July 2013 formed a tripartite committee consisting of representatives from the NBR, LTU, BTRC and the four operators to set the payable amount evaluating the claim of LTU and documents submitted by the operators.
Finally on December 30 last year, committee convener Al Amin Pramanik, also a commissioner of the NBR, submitted a report without signature of representatives from the operators and the BTRC as they stood against the report.
According to the report, the NBR committee found dissimilarity in full names of the subscribers in the subscribers’ documents 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 the operators 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
