Telcos complain of payment hurdle as BTRC has no VAT registration

The telecom regulator has refused to accept payments by the mobile phone operators for the second quarter of 2019, the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh or AMTOB says.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission or BTRC is yet to get registered for Value Added Tax or VAT, which has created complexities, the association claimed in a media release on Wednesday.

BTRC’s comments on the issue were not available immediately.

AMTOB said they went to make payments for the April-June period like parts of revenue, social responsibility funds and annual fees for spectrum, but BTRC refused to collect the bills excluding VAT.

AMTOB Secretary General SM Farhad cited the VAT law, which came into effect on July 1, to back their claim of complexities.

If a supplier is not registered or enlisted, and if a combined tax invoice and withholding certificate is not issued, the withholding entity shall not receive any supply from such supplier and shall pay no price against such supply to the supplier, the law states.

The operators failed to pay VAT as BTRC was yet to get registered as the supplier entity, according to Farhad.   

The mobile phone operators had decided to make the payments despite the complexities considering the interests of over 160 million subscribers, he said.

The AMTOB official also said they had asked for instructions from the National Board of Revenue and BTRC about how they can make payments in accordance with the VAT law, but have not heard from them.