VAT COLLECTION Discretionary powers to be cut

The discretionary powers of the tax enforcers are likely to be cut in the upcoming fiscal year as part of the National Board of Revenue’s strategy to implement the much-vaunted value added tax law.
NBR officials have said that the taxpeople exercise their discretionary powers outside the law, often causing harassment to general taxpayers.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is likely to make the announcement on curbing the discretionary powers, frequently used by VAT officials, in his budget speech on June 13 in the Jatiya Sangsad, they have said.
Former NBR chairman Nasiruddin Ahmed on Thursday, however, told New Age that no tax enforcer exercised any discretionary power outside the law.
He noted that lapses might have occurred by taxpeople during the enforcement of the law.
‘The tax enforcers of our country generally do not maintain any level-playing field for the taxpayers while enforcing any particular law or rule,’ he said.
He further said that in most cases the influential people backed by politicians benefitted from and the general people became victims of discretionary powers exercised by the tax collectors.
Mustafa Kamal, according to NBR officials, is also expected to announce that the issues of complexities raised by the business communities while implementing the new VAT Act will be resolved through issuance of notices and circulars as part of the strategy. 
The implementation of the new VAT law that has remained suspended since 2017 after it was passed in 2012 will get important focus in the new budget.
Mustafa Kamal already said that the implementation of the new VAT Act would be a key to higher revenue mobilisation against the fact that the country’s tax-GDP ratio was one of the world’s lowest.
Immediate past president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin said that they expected an announcement from the finance minister on constituting a committee to review the implementation of the VAT Act.
He said, ‘The matter is crucial.’
On May 14, a meeting presided over by Mustafa Kamal settled the differences between the NBR and the FBCCI on how to implement the act from July 1.
After the meeting, NBR chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said that the implementation status of the new law would be reviewed from time to time while countering an allegation by the businesspeople that the tax officials were not prepared to implement the new act.
He said that the implementation of the new law would be done in phases.
At a meeting on March 31, the country’s businesspeople agreed to pay VAT at the proposed multiple rates of 5, 7.5 and 10 per cent from the upcoming fiscal year.
It was also decided that the current 15 per cent VAT on many imported items and sectors like telecom and tobacco would remain unchanged.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net