The National Board of Revenue (NBR) went against the finance minister’s proposals to reduce certain taxes on mobile operators as they have ‘back tracked’ from prior commitments, according to the mobile operators.
NBR, however, suggested the mobile operators to resolve all issues before the deadline of applying for 3G licence, which is August 1, 2013 and has agreed to sit with them again on July 22 to speed up the process.
Last year, NBR claimed a total of Tk30.18bn in unpaid SIM replacement tax from the top three operators. Grameenphone was asked to pay TK15.80bn, Banglalink Tk7.74bn and Robi Tk6.64bn.
Immediately, the three operators went to court and after nearly a year, on June 6, the HC gave its verdict, disposing the ruling, directing the trio go back to the NBR.
The operators are considering the unresolved issue as one of their preconditions for joining the upcoming 3G spectrum auction on September 2.
But operators termed yesterday’s meeting with NBR Chairman Ghulam Hussain ‘back track’ from the negotiation.
In a meeting on June 27, the finance minister is said to have assured that mobile operators will enjoy SIM replacement without tax. But this time, NBR said operators can go for an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), the arbitration court of NBR to resolve the issue.
NBR also proposed the operators to settle the issue of 2G spectrum fees and revenue sharing out of court. “But there is no concrete proposals about it,” a high official of a mobile operator told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said: “Time is very short for making a decision regarding 3G and we may not go for 3G spectrum auction before settling these issues.”
Answering their question, NBR chairman said: “No tension about it, within a week or two they can solve the problems.”
“There was an amicable discussion with no results, none of the issues were solved,” Mahtab Uddin Ahmed acting CEO, also the chief financial officer of Robi told the Dhaka Tribune.
“We could not find solutions to the situation as finance minister recommended on June 27 inter-ministerial meeting; though we went to the meeting with a hope for positive outcome,” TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) said after the meeting.
He said, they are ready to attend the 3G spectrum auction but time is very short.
The NBR chairman was quoted to have told the meeting that “no problem about time frame, we can solve the unresolved issues before the deadline.” To speed up the process they will meet together again on July 22.
Meeting sources informed that NBR backed out from the finance minister’s promise for “no SIM replacement tax.” The minister had also suggested to allow showing SIM tax as expenses to help Telco’s with income tax.
NBR chairman said at the meeting that the government would lose Tk8.75bn as SIM tax reduced form Tk600 to Tk300.
Earlier, the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) of NBR claimed Tk31bn from four mobile operator as SIM replacement tax. NBR claimed TK15.80bn from Grameenphone, Tk7.74bn from Banglalink, Tk6.64bn fron Robi and Tk0.85bn from Airtel.
Mobile operator went to the court challenging the tax but sent it back to the NBR to solve it.
Allong with other VAT Commissioner of NBR Barrister Jahangir Hossain, Ziad Shatara, CEO of Banglalink, Mahmudur Rahman, executive vice president of Robi, Mahmud Hossain, chief corporate officer, Zakiul Islam, a senior director of Banglalink attended the meeting.
Earlier, the NBR chairman met BTRC Chairman Sunil kanti Bose at his office to discuss the issue.
