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VAT payers: again victims of harassment & corruption |
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January 31, 2001
Dhaka-- (UNB)- VAT payers have again fallen victims to harassment and corruption in divisional VAT offices as National Board of Revenue (NBR) has stopped issuance of VAT registration from its central office. The decision to recruit VAT advisers to aid the VAT payers and make the process easier for revenue officials was also not implemented in last three years. Amidst growing complaints of bribery and harassment from business bodies against divisional VAT offices under NBR’s seven commissionerates, the NBR in 1998 made an alternative arrangement to issue VAT registrations from its head office. An NBR survey said about 80 percent of complaints it received regarding VAT is related to registration in divisional revenue offices. The Board in an order to all commissionerates and divisions said such irregularities are not only unusual, but also impediments to make the VAT system more transparent and consolidated. To check such practices, the NBR authorities in 1998 started issuing registrations from the headquarters alongside existing divisional offices. Businesspeople welcomed the step as it gave them a respite from sufferings and harassment just for obtaining registrations. The arrangement facilitated industrialists, importers, exporters, contractors, C&F agents, freight forwarders and others from anywhere of the country to opt for getting registrations right from NBR’s central office. But this arrangement was suddenly suspended allegedly because of an underhand dealing between a section of NBR officials and divisional VAT officials, as the alternative arrangement axed their undue earnings, sources said. VAT officials from divisions under seven commissionarates pay lakhs of taka every month to a section of mid-level officials to stop the alternative VAT registration at head office, they alleged. The same ulterior motive also worked behind suspension of recruiting VAT advisers to make the VAT procedures easier for both the collectors and payers, they hinted. An SRO issued by NBR in June 1998 said VAT advisers will be selected through tests and given 3-year licenses to independently deal with VAT affairs. The NBR was supposed to give newspaper advertisements in September every year seeking candidates for the job, which is compared to that of a tax lawyer. But no step was taken in this regard in last three years. |