While additional costs for project implementation have become a common phenomenon, a request has been sent to the Internal Resources Division (IRD) of the Finance Ministry to mop-up Tk342 crore of the unspent money from the VAT Online Project (VOP).
Project officials informed Dhaka Tribune that the project underspent the allocation as some of the planned steps were dropped due to the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic.
An estimated Tk140 crore was allocated for consultancy purposes, however, the project spent only Tk45 crore by appointing a part-time consultant.
The project is still ongoing as 13 modules have so far been developed to automate VAT administration while the remaining three would be completed within July.
According to the sources, on June 21 a letter was sent to the NBR from the VAT Online Project, detailing the costs incurred. The letter requested the IRD of the Finance Ministry to take the necessary steps to transfer the unused fund.
The total cost of the project is estimated at Tk690 crore.
In this regard, Kazi Mustafizur Rahman, project director of the VAT Online Project told Dhaka Tribune that all the features of the online project, including software development, have been implemented while the World Bank has evaluated the progress of the project through a third party.
Around Tk347 crore was spent in the project while the remaining unspent Tk342 crore will be returned to the fund.
He added that although the specific project was completed, the total work was not completely finished. Another three modules would be completed soon and then those will be prepared for testing after the preparation of manuals for audit and risk management by the NBR. Huge sums of money have been saved as consultant fees and building renovations have not been spent.
As more workforce is required to maintain the software and to add new features, the money saved will be later used to upgrade and train them.
He also said that it is very necessary at this moment as the software needs to be restructured according to the changes made in the budget and with the current situation, it will take more than half a year to do it. Currently it's running using external vendors.
Besides, a team will be sent to Vietnam soon to make its own workforce efficient, he explained.
Mustafizur Rahman further said that a call center was set up for the convenience of businesses but now it is closed. It will be re-launched next month.
From this call center, businessmen will get answers to all the questions related to VAT.
Now the VAT Online project is working on online VAT registration, return, payment, refund, material-production co-announcement, document processing, litigation and return verification.
Project history
Earlier, NBR launched the project on May 9, 2014 with fund support from the World Bank and the Bangladesh government.
The Washington-based multilateral lender provided $60 million for the project under a 'programme for result' initiative.
The government earlier extended the project's tenure twice as some major modules remained incomplete.
Three modules-audit, litigation, and risk management will be completed by the NBR's IT (information technology) team with support from a Vietnamese firm, FPT which has developed the VAT online system.