The National Board of Revenue has asked its field offices to launch legal actions if Unani medicines manufacturers fail to clear outstanding value added tax.
The business stage VAT on the Unani medicines has, however, remained suspended since July, 2014.
But the manufacturers allegedly refused to pay the tax they kept due before exemption.
When asked about the row, NBR sources said the manufacturers continued to refuse to pay the outstanding tax as the field offices asked them to pay.
The manufacturers’ rationale was that as the VAT had been exempted, they won’t pay it.
They, however, refused to understand that the VAT being asked for was due before the exemption came into effect, sources said.
In this situation, the field offices communicated the matter with the headquarters in Dhaka.
On February 10, the VAT implementation wing responded with a clarification that the VAT due before exemption should have to be paid.
The letter reads if the manufacturers fail to pay the due VAT, they should be brought under legal proceedings.
They were also asked to submit a report to NBR headquarters in next seven days with details of actions taken in this regard.