The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has excluded 34 companies from its Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) under VAT Wing following their poor contribution in revenue collection.
With the exclusion of these corporate entities, the LTU will have a total of 110 large taxpayers under its supervision.
The excluded taxpayers will pay taxes in other jurisdiction as ordered by the NBR.
The VAT Wing recently sent the list of 110 companies to the Bangladesh Government Press for issuing a gazette.
Talking to the FE, LTU VAT Commissioner Wahida Rahman Chowdhury said as per law, the companies with more than Tk 100 million annual tax payment were under the purview of the LTU.
The 34 companies had been contributing poorly to the public exchequer for long. The average annual VAT payments by these corporate taxpayers remained below Tk 100 million during the last three years.
Earlier, in a letter to the NBR, the unit placed detailed status of these 34 companies, including their VAT payment in fiscal year (FY) 2017-18, FY 2018-19 and FY 2019-20.
The letter said the unit faced problems in achieving its target, which was set on the basis of the total number of companies under it.
The 34 companies consisted 23 per cent of the total 144 large companies under the LTU.
Six separate teams of the LTU scrutinised the last five years' revenue growth, market share, balance sheet, income growth and production capacity of the companies.
The team members also visited factories of the companies to find out the reasons of their poor VAT payment. The investigation process was completed in February 2021.
Of the 34 companies, VAT payment by some companies averaged Tk 0.5 million during the last three years.
The excluded companies are - Orion Infusion Ltd, National Polymer Industries Ltd, International Television Ltd (NTV), Trais Pack Ltd, Bangladesh Television, Lalbagh Chemical and Perfumery Works Ltd, Akij Particle Board Mills Ltd, Jayson Pharmaceutical Ltd, Bangladesh Insulator and Sanitaryware Factory Ltd, Phoenix Insurance Co Ltd, Mutual Food Products Ltd, and Bashundhara Paper Mills Ltd, among others.
Other companies include Mir Cement Ltd, Global Heavy Chemical Ltd, ACME Agrovet and Beverages Ltd, Partex Furniture Ltd, Akij Printing and Packages Ltd, Sinha Printers Ltd, Magura Paper Mills Ltd, GA Company Ltd, National Tubes Ltd, Libra Infusions Ltd, Otobi Ltd, Apollo Ispat Complex Ltd, Apollo Ispat Complex Ltd (unit-2), Bengal Packages Ltd, Miracle Industries Ltd (unit-2), Tampaco Foils Ltd, United Edible Oils Ltd, Dipa Food Products Ltd, Interspeed Advertising Ltd, and Farzana Oil Refineries Ltd.
Of the 34 companies, VAT payment by International Television Channel (NTV), BTV, Miracle Industries Ltd (unit-2), Tampaco Foils Ltd, Dipa Food Products Ltd, and Farzana Oil Refineries Ltd declined significantly during the period.
Dipa Food Products Ltd and Farzana Oil Refineries Ltd already applied to the LTU for their factory closure. The two companies paid no VAT in FY 2019-20, according to the LTU data.
Of the 25 state-owned entities registered with the unit, revenue growth rate of National Tubes Ltd, BTV, and Bangladesh Insulator and Sanitaryware Factory Ltd was low.
According to the LTU data, the average VAT payments by seven companies of the 34 companies were between Tk 0.5 million and Tk 7.6 million.
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