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'SAMENA Daily' - News

NBR urges BTRC to pay income tax

The revenue board has urged the telecom regulatory authority to pay income tax including advance tax to the public exchequer as per Income Tax Ordinance-1984.

The board made the request following approval of Finance Minister (FM) AMA Muhith to collect tax from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).  

The finance minister approved recently a summary of NBR endorsing legal justification on collection of taxes from BTRC.

Following the approval, National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman Md Nojibur Rahman sent recently a Demy Official (DO) letter to BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose seeking his cooperation on expediting collection of income tax from the entity.

In the letter, the NBR chairman said the BTRC was never a tax-exempted entity as per income tax ordinance although the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulation Act, 2001 has a provision of exemption.

However, no such order had been issued by the tax authority to the entity so far for exempting income tax.

"In the budget for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014-15, the NBR reduced taxes from 37.5 per cent to 25 per cent for 29 local autonomous bodies including BTRC," the NBR chair wrote in the DO letter.    

Similar entities like BTRC are paying taxes regularly to the public exchequer, the letter said.

The BTRC was claiming itself as non-taxable entity citing the telecommunication act while income tax law has the provision to supersede other laws.

The Finance Bill 2014 has incorporated a section, 52V, into the income-tax ordinance on deduction of tax at source at 10 per cent by mobile-phone operators against payment of different fees to the BTRC.

In the DO letter, the NBR chair said the commission will be able to adjust the paid tax at source with the actual payable annual tax of the BTRC.

Mobile operators pay different fees to the BTRC such as spectrum assignment fees, license acquisition fees, application fees, annual licence fees, licence renewal fees, charges on revenue sharing, social obligation fund and so to the BTRC.

Officials said tax authorities expect highest taxes from the BTRC among the local authorities as it earns a considerable amount of revenues compared to that of other local authorities.

The large taxpayers unit (LTU) estimates some Tk 10 billion income tax is due from BTRC for the FY 2014-15.



Source: http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/03/02/83309

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