Facebook gets VAT registration
Social media giant Facebook yesterday received the value-added tax registration from the National Board of Revenue after 2 yrs of stalemate.
Three entities of Facebook - Facebook Technologies Ireland Ltd, Facebook Ireland Ltd, and Facebook Payments International Ltd - got the Business Identification Number (BIN) from the Dhaka South VAT Commissionerate, said Pramila Sarker, additional commissioner of the field office.
Facebook's move comes nearly fourteen days after Google and e-commerce company Amazon's secured the BINs.
In July 2019, the NBR made it mandatory for tech giants to either setup offices in Bangladesh or appoint agents in order that the government can collect VAT on the advertisements and other services provided by them to local firms.
However, internet companies were unwilling to create representative offices. These were also not thinking about paying VAT to the NBR through agents or sharing data on sales containing info on customers on the floor of privacy breaches and security risks.
This past year, the NBR made a decision to allow tech giants to get direct VAT registration without opening local offices to bring them beneath the tax network.
However, progress have been slow over the last one year due to technical and legal complexity, according to officials.
Facebook's local sales agent Httpool Bangladesh Ltd has been paying VAT against ad sales since July this past year, said Sarker.
As of April this season, the NBR has received Tk 9.40 crore from Httpool Bangladesh, according to the field office of the VAT.
Besides, many companies also make payments to Facebook through banks and other payment systems, which also slice the VAT at the foundation.
"We expect to see streaming service agency Netflix and technology company Microsoft getting registration soon," Sarker said.
With 4.1 crore users, Bangladesh has the 10th most significant Facebook population on the globe, according to German database company Statista.
A lot more than 3 lakh stores run procedures based on Facebook, with over 1,000 running their business through only the social media platform, which makes up about around 80 % of all social media users in Bangladesh, industry persons said in December.
Although there is absolutely no specific figure of the F-commerce market size, it could range between Tk 300 crore to Tk 350 crore per year.
