The top 10 companies in the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) sector paid a total of Tk18,812 crore in July-December or H1 of the current fiscal year (FY).
Overall, the VAT mobilization from 110 large taxpayers companies grew by 15%.
But this time, the country has seen a new trend of growth than the FY21.
42 companies fell short of what they paid during the same period a year ago, according to the LTU-VAT of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Analyzing the trend of paying VAT in LTU, it can be seen that among other institutions, cigarette, banking, pharmaceuticals, gas, electricity was good during the H1 period of FY22.
On the other hand, collection from three other top VAT-paying sectors — telecom operators, soap and cement — witnessed negative growth.
According to National Board of Revenue (NBR) latest data, more than half of the VAT collected came from the cigarette sector, followed by mobile phone operators, banks, medicine, gas and other sectors.
Asked about the trend in the first six months of FY22, Wahida Rahman Chowdhury, commissioner at the LTU-VAT, told Dhaka Tribune: “The highest tax has come from the cigarette and mobile sector, as always. Besides, the growth of the banking sector in the first six months is much better this time. Probably the deduction of excise duty is a factor as to why they're doing so good in December.”
Regarding the big growth in the government utility sector, she said: “Many power plants shut down last year, so taxes were reduced. This time, some of those power plants have re-launched and some new power plants have also started working. On the other hand, the gas sector, especially Petrobangla has to be mentioned separately. The company was going through a lot of problems due to various decisions of the government including the increase in the price of petroleum in the international market.”
“However, since the government has allocated their money, they have paid some money to us. So, the growth has increased a bit. However, we still owe them about Tk23,000 crore. We have talked to them about this,” she added.
According to data, the growth of the gas sector was 168%. The banking sector witnessed a growth of 25%. Then cigarettes 16%, pharmaceuticals 11%, electricity distributors 10%, water supply 3% and beverage 2%.
Asked about the negative growth of mobile, cement and soap sectors, Wahida Rahman Chowdhury said that the growth of mobile companies has slowed down compared to last fiscal year due to some problems with BTRC.
“We have already talked to the companies. One company reported their problem. We will sit down with BTRC next week on this,” she said.
“However, the biggest theft we found is in the cement sector. My officers have been actively investigating those and a lot of information has come to our attention. In addition, I think the growth of the soap sector has slowed down due to the rise in the price of petroleum in the international market and the impact of Covid-19 on people's reducing purchasing power,” she further said.
Data disclosed that the VAT from mobile operators amounted to Tk4,216 crore, down by 4% year-on-year, while the collection from Unilever's soap and nine cement companies fell by 13% and 10% respectively.
Wahida Rahman also said: “The NBR gave us a big goal this time. The target is Tk66,000 crore. My team and I are working hard for this. But we have to keep in mind that LTUs are not new entities that will see their growth rates skyrocket.”
“However, in many cases, we do not have much support or cooperation from NBR. Recently, we have had doubts in our minds about a few LTU organization taxes. That is why we have sought the cooperation of various departments of NBR,” she also informed.