The Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, has told telecom operators to clear their dues as early as possible.
The NBR chairman said this in a pre-budget discussion with the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) on Monday.
He also told the AMTOB members to settle the cases pending for dodging taxes and vats, as soon as possible.
AMTOB Secretary General TIM Nurul Kabir, AMTOB Vice President and Managing Director and CEO of Robi Axiata Ltd Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, among others, were present in the discussion.
AMTOB members have raised ten issues regarding mobile improvement of the telecom sector. They also demanded getting rid of the vat on internet usage and other charges imposed.
AMTOB members said if the tax rate gets down then it will be faster to connect remote regions of the country.
Nurul Kabir said: “Currently 21.75 percent of vat, surge charge and SD have been imposed on internet usage.”
He also urged waiving the 4 percent import vat and 4 percent purchase vat on internet modem.
The waiver of all kinds of vat on internet will increase the amount of internet usage, which in turn will generate more revenue.
Mobile operators have to pay 36.65 taka vat and 63.35 taka supplement tax for selling sim-rim and 100 taka for replacement fee.
Among other demands, AMTOB urged to have extra facility on importing 4G cell phones, and to keep mobile call bill source tax free.
The NBR chairman told the AMTOB members: “Often there is news in the paper that you do not clear taxes and vats properly and regularly. Solve them fast. This thing hampers your name and our revenue gets decreased too.”
On the matter of withdrawing vat from internet usage he said, “It can be decided after we sit with other ISP providers.”
Friday, March 28, 2025
