Al Amin :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) claimed that ATS Pearls Ltd has evaded over Tk 29.37crore duties by misusing bonded warehouse facilities in the fiscal year 2019-20.
The Customs Bond Commissionerate (CBC), Chattogram, has discovered the duty evasion by scrutinising the papers of the company, according to a document of the revenue board.
The document said the ATS Pearls Ltd, a Chattogram-based apparel company, received some 153 export permission from the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) during the aforesaid time.
But only 116 Bill of Export was founded by scrutinising all the documents of the NBR and the Bangladesh Bank data, it said.
Besides, the company removed it produced goods illegally from its warehouse by using same export permission from the BEPZA, the document said.
Through the illegal removal of the produced goods, the company has evaded revenue worth TK 29,37,42,517, it said. The company has also violated the customs and the bonded warehouse rules through removing the goods illegally, the document said.
The Customs, Bond Commissionerate has filed a case against the company and issued show-cause notice in this regard.
AKM Mahbubur Rahman, Commissioner of the Commissionerate, told The New Nation, “No one will get escape by evading revenue by misusing bonded warehouse facilities as much as he or she is powerful.”
“If the company fails to deposit the evaded revenue within a certain time, we will take legal action including cancellation of the bonded license,” he added.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh said, “Dishonest businesses evade revenue by misusing government facilities in some cases, which is very harmful for the country’s economy.”
“NBR officials should increase strong monitoring to prevent the revenue evasion. They must ensure transparency in providing their services,” he added.
This correspondent tried to contract with Md Yusuf, Managing Director of the ATS Pearls Ltd on Tuesday. But he was unable to comment on this issue as he was hospitalised.
