NBR turns down RAB offer of help to collect VAT

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has spurned a RAB offer of help in VAT collection.

The board found the proposal by the elite police unit ‘not worth approval or consideration’, NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman told bdnews24.com on Thursday.
 
“It’s a clear stance of the NBR,” he said.
 
The decision to not engage RAB was taken on evaluation of the issue at stake, he said.
 
Referring to tax laws, he said, “It’s us who will collect VAT and seek help from the law-enforcing agencies if we need.”
 
He said there was no scope of confusion or doubt over the existing system of VAT collection.

RAB Director General Benazir Ahmed recently sent the proposal to the NBR offering help in collection of VAT by amending Mobile Court Act. Several media have run reports on the matter.

He said RAB’s mobile court drives have been ‘lauded’.

But the Mobile Court Act is not included in the Value Added Tax Act as a schedule, barring such courts to engage in collecting VAT, he said.

“As a result, the tendency to evade tax is rising on the one hand and the government is deprived of revenues on the other,” Ahmed said.

He proposed to include the Mobile Court Act in the VAT Act so that RAB would get the opportunity to conduct drives against VAT evasion.