NBR Plans VAT Law Changes to Hold Officers Accountable

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is contemplating to introduce a system to account its officers for skipping any business entity without enlisting that in the Value Added Tax (VAT) net.

For this purpose, the existing VAT law has to be changed.

The revenue collecting authority is thinking to implement this plan aiming to induct every business entity having Tk 50 lakh turnover early under the VAT net.

It has reduced the amount from Tk 3 crore in last January.

Currently, the NBR is under huge pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to improve the revenue collection to increase the tax-GDP ratio to 7.9 percent by next June, which is currently 7.4 percent.

The IMF has stopped to release the 3rd and 4th tranches of the $4.7 billion loan programme  asking the government to fulfill all its conditions.

It has asked the NBR to collect some Tk 2 lakh crore in the remaining months of the 2024-25 fiscal to meet the conditions for the last two trenches of the $4.7 billion loan.

Talking to UNB a senior official of the NBR said this week that it might take time, but the system should be like that if any VAT officer goes to a place every shop of that area should come under the VAT net.

In this connection, he said that after reducing the VAT yearly turnover to Tk 50 lakh it means that any shop that sells Tk 15,000 per day is eligible to come under the VAT net.

“So there is no need to ask any shop owner whether it sells upto this amount. Each and every shop has to be under VAT net, there should be combing drive in a specific area, big or small,” he said wishing anonymity.

He also said that the NBR is thinking to implement this plan without any discrimination.

“We are thinking to make changes in the respective law to hold responsible the specific official for any specific region who will skip any shop,” he added.

He said that if any business entity is skipped, the official of that particular region will be liable.

Responding to a query regarding shortage of manpower for this job, the NBR official said that they are aware about this.

“If necessary, it will take time. But no business entity should be left out from this net. If needed the area can be a small Initiative,” he said.

NBR chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan recently  in a pre-budget meeting said that they had reduced the yearly turnover amount intensionally to bring all business entity under the VAT net.

“We want to expand the VAT net, we have started our job, we want to ensure 100 percent coverage in a specific area, no one will be left out,” he told the meeting.

The NBR has been able to collect some Tk 50,844 crore till February 2025 against the target of Tk Tk 69,103 crore. It had been able to collect Tk 53,426 crore till February 2024. It’s a 4.83% negative growth, reports UNB.