No end to GP and NBR’s disputes
Grameenphone has been refraining from paying value-added taxes (VAT) on rentals of Bangladesh Railways' optical fibre since March 2018 as it is not appearing furnished with invoice by the revenue administration due to stipulated by the regulations.
The amount of unpaid VAT by Grameenphone is Tk 20 crore and the credited amount is merely increasing as time passes, according to a letter from BR to the National Board of Revenue in October this past year.
In response, the NBR asked its field office -- Significant Taxpayers Unit (LTU)-VAT -- to take action as per law.
The country's major operator has taken a 20-year lease of the railway's optical fibre in 1997; the lease was expanded for another a decade to September 2027.
Based on the contract, Grameenphone have been paying Guaranteed Annual Rentals (GARs) to BR atlanta divorce attorneys quarter including VAT in the amount.
And the BR have been issuing a certificate to the cellular phone operator consistent with a 1997 order of the NBR. The machine had been in place until December 2017, regarding to BR.
But Grameenphone stopped paying VAT from March 2018 on the ground of non-issuance of invoice, officially referred to as Mushak-11 or Mushak-6.3, the BR said found in its letter to NBR looking for required action.
"We have sought directive from the NBR," said a good senior official of the BR.
Contacted, an official of LTU VAT said the field business office sought explanation from Grameenphone relating to non-payment of VAT in GARs. The cellular operator responded and came out in a hearing.
Later, a committee possesses been formed to examine the VAT-related concerns of the cell operator, he said.
Grameenphone gave several reminders to the BR for valid invoice, which it is entitled to due to something recipient, to enable repayment of VAT on GAR, said Md Hasan, the operator's head of exterior communications.
The tax authority has instructed Grameenphone to acquire VAT at source applicable to GAR payments next past practice.
"But it didn't say anything about the legal right of Grameenphone to get a valid VAT invoice and non-deduction of VAT at supply for payment made due to [Nationwide Telecomm-unication Transmitting Network (NTTN)] provider rendered by the Bangladesh Railway."
"If Bangladesh Railway concerns a good valid VAT invoice, Grameenphone can make VAT repayment to Bangladesh Railway without the deduction," he added.
The episode is another exemplory case of stalemate over VAT between your NBR and cellular operators.
Over the last several years, mobile operators and the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) have been around in an impasse over repayment of VAT on various providers that they receive from the regulator.
The deadlock revolves around the problem of VAT registration of BTRC.
Mobile phone operators demand that the telecom watchdog problems VAT invoice to them against repayment of VAT on income sharing, spectrum demand and other services seeing that in the absence of chalan they cannot claim input tax credit rating or rebate during final payment of VAT to the general public coffer.
The BTRC said it cannot issue VAT invoice since it isn't a VAT registered entity.
In November this past year, the telecom watchdog sought 'effective procedures' from the NBR informing that portable operators have not paid out VAT on income sharing, spectrum charge and additional services because the BTRC isn't a VAT authorized entity.
The NBR is yet to take any decision in this regard.
"We are working onto it," a explained another official of VAT at the NBR.
