No need to visit VAT office for registration: NBR
Getting registered for value added tax (VAT) does not require any visit to revenue offices as it can be done online, stressed the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Monday.
Allegations have surfaced of businesses being asked to bring over documents even if they had already applied online for the registration.
“This is undesirable and unexpected,” said the revenue authority in a circular, warning of stern action against officials involved in any such irregularity.
The VAT registration is a precondition for engaging in manufacturing, export, import and supplying business in Bangladesh. The new VAT law has provisions facilitating the online registration.
It stipulates that an applicant be provided the VAT registration certificate, which contains a business identification number (BIN), within three working days of the application’s submission, said the NBR.
If there is any inconsistency in the application, the official concerned has to inform the applicant within the same time frame, it added.
However, assistance should be extended to anyone voluntarily coming over to an office, said the notice signed by Md Tariq Hassan, second secretary (VAT policy) of the NBR.
In another notification, the NBR said companies getting one central BIN instead of individual ones for every branch or unit would have their accounts audited on a mandatory basis every year.
A VAT official said under the new law, companies would no longer need to pay VAT before delivering goods to other units or branches.
That is why, the provision of compulsory audit has been incorporated to ensure compliance, he said.
The NBR also said even if a firm uses two or more places to supply homogenous products, it would need to get just a single VAT registration.
All such details, alongside address of headquarters and purchase of raw materials, import and export and goods supplies, will be listed under this sole registration, it said.
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However, such businesses will need to keep records of goods supplied to branches or units while branches will keep record of all sales. The information should be furnished with returns every month, says the notification.
