NBR takes ‘comprehensive plan’ to resolve pending commercial cases

The National Board of Revenue has taken “comprehensive plan” to resolve the pending commercial cases with them, its chairman says.

Nurul Islam Hasibfrom Bahubal, Habiganjbdnews24.com
Published : 27 Jan 2017, 05:07 PM
Updated : 27 Jan 2017, 11:21 PM

Md Nojibur Rahman told bdnews24.com they have remained “constructively engaged” with the stakeholders and had been trying to resolve those cases in three ways.

First, by preventing more cases by calling upon their colleagues to be more interactive with the businesses and to try to solve any issues instantly.

The second option is to fast-track cold cases with the help of lawyers and the third way is by activating alternative dispute resolution mechanism engaging business leaders.

The question came as the President of the FBCCI Abdul Matlub Ahmed told a session of a strategic workshop that there are 26,000 commercial cases pending with the NBR, an issue that he showed as one of the discouraging factors for investors.

"Some of them (cases) are 10 years old," he said.

 

Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) organised the two-day workshop with all relevant government agencies and private stakeholders at a Bahubal resort in the north-east Habiganj district with the support of World Bank Group.

This is organsied to devise “action plans” on how to place Bangladesh among the top 100 countries in the World Bank’s 'ease of doing business' rankings in order to make it an attractive destination for global businesses.

BIDA Executive Chairman Kazi M Aminul Islam, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam, and Principal Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury are also attending the workshop along with their colleagues from the different ministries, and business leaders.

The NBR chief said they would host a seminar with the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry next week, where the issue of commercial cases would come in a big way.

The World Bank has placed Bangladesh in the 176th position among 190 countries in its Doing Business 2017 report. Bangladesh was ranked 178 last year.

Despite gaining two spots, Bangladesh lags behind most other SAARC countries, managing only to overtake war-torn Afghanistan.

The study ranks the business environment of a country based on 11 indicator sets: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labour market regulations.

BIDA, which was formed through the merger of the Privatisation Commission and the Board of Investment last year, now wants to push Bangladesh at least 76 places up in the index within 2020, when the Seventh Five-Year Plan draws to an end.

Its Executive Chairman Kazi M Aminul Islam, earlier, told bdnews24.com that they were following the top countries in the World Bank's rankings such as New Zealand and Singapore as ‘model countries’ in their efforts to improve the investment climate.