The National Board of Revenue launched drives early this month to
rein in the evasion of value-added tax, now the second biggest revenue
source for the state.
The audit, intelligence and investigation directorate for value-added
has already detected VAT evasion by seven firms since it embarked on
its drive on October 8.
The firms are engaged in manufacturing of cement, furniture, ice
cream, electric fans, and bicycle parts, according to a statement
yesterday.
The investigation team checked goods transport vehicles at Tejgaon,
Moghbazar, Doyaganj, Postagola and in the Dhaka-Chittagong road's
Signboard area and found that the firms were supplying goods without VAT
invoice, said Margoob Ahmed, director general of the directorate.
He however declined to disclose the names of firms that were found
evading VAT, an indirect tax that is ultimately paid by consumers.
As per rules, businesses must provide VAT invoice or payment receipts when delivering the goods from factories.
But the VAT intelligence and investigation office has detected eight
vehicles transporting goods without VAT invoice, while one was using the
same invoice for two different deliveries, said officials.
They recommended the relevant commissionerates to file cases against the firms for VAT evasion of Tk 4.66 lakh.
Ahmed said the firms were repeatedly instructed not to deliver goods without VAT invoice.
“We will continue such drives to prevent tax evasion. And we will go
for legal action including filing of cases if we find any vehicle
transporting goods without VAT invoice.”
He said the taxpayers are the driving force of the economy.
“We request firms to provide proper VAT invoice while delivering
goods from factories. Otherwise, they will fall in an embarrassing
situation, which we do not want.”
Other than that, the office also conducted a survey in large shopping
malls in Dhaka and found that most of the shops do not have VAT
registrations, according to the statement.
VAT compliance by shops in the malls is frustrating, according to Ahmed.
The VAT audit directorate started conducting field drives after the
NBR framed the charter of functions for the office and reformed the law
to empower the office to take measures to prevent VAT evasion.
Earlier, the directorate was mainly engaged in audit and investigation on the basis of complaints, said officials.
Through audit, the directorate detected Tk 135 crore VAT that was
either evaded or avoided in 2014 and the January-July period of the
current year, according to the statement.
