The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has put forward a six-point proposal to the office of the Attorney General, requesting to assist the taxes authorities in resolving the tax related disputes that remain pending at the courts for years.
The taxes authorities wanted to form a core working group consisting of three members each from attorney general’s office and the NBR to implement the judicial guidance compilation.
The NBR also stressed on providing proper training to concerned officials on settlement of unresolved cases during their training at the tax academy and customs academy.
NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman placed the proposal to attorney general Mahbubey Alam at a views exchange programme and monthly revenue conference at the NBR headquarters in Dhaka.
The NBR organised the meeting to discuss the issue with the officials of attorney general’s office for monitoring and speedy disposal of such cases.
Currently, a total of 23,289 cases, involving around Tk29,000 crore in income tax, customs duty and value added tax, remain stuck up due to cases pending at the High Court and appellate division of the Supreme Court.
The discussants exchanged views on technical issues of the cases, settlement of cases through Alternative Dispute Resolution, and shared their experiences that they face while dealing with the cases.
The other proposals from NBR includes organising monthly/bi-monthly/quarterly coordination meetings with the attorney general’s office and prioritising the cases received in respective offices and take necessary initiatives through legal officials, and expedite the audit of tax files.
Attending the programme, Mahbubey Alam said cases related to income tax, customs and VAT are filed from a specific level of people.
“They take such cases in courts to get more benefits. Our main work is to properly help and assist the decisions taken by the NBR,” he said.
More initiatives and efforts from NBR will help get better results and settle the cases through speedy ways, the attorney general added.
NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman said support from the attorney general’s office will help recover huge amount of revenue which will help the government in implementing the vision 2021 and 2041 announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
He said the NBR will organise a national workshop on November 14 on procedure of conducting NBR cases, and sought necessary support from the attorney general’s office to make the programme successful.
The meeting was attended by the assistant and deputy attorney generals, NBR members and officials of NBR.
The NBR earlier held meeting with the chief justice and sought his support on quick disposal of the tax-related cases.