The National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Wednesday categorically denied the rumour circulating a vested quarter in the social media sites regarding the imposition of VAT on inward remittance in the proposed
budget.
A statement issued by the NBR said that the government had neither taken such a decision nor was there any justification for imposition of value added tax (VAT) on remittance sends by expatriate Bangladeshis.
Remittance sent by the expatriates contributes to 12 per cent of Bangladesh’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP).
“No VAT has been imposed on remittance in the proposed budget for 2018-19 fiscal year,” read the NBR statement.
Brushing aside the rumour, the NBR said it is being spread out on social media that Value Added Tax (VAT) has been imposed on the remittance in the 2018-19 fiscal, which is completely ‘false’.
When contacted, NBR chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the government did not impose any tax or VAT on remittance.
“False information regarding tax or VAT on remittance is spreading through facebook and social media,” he added.
Bhuiyan also urged all not to get confused with the false information as the government has no intention to impose any kind of tax on inward remittance.
Expatriate Bangladeshis sent US$12,088.18 million remittance in the first 10 months of the outgoing fiscal 2017-18, which is 17.51 per cent higher than the amount received in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
The money sent by expatriate Bangladeshis had been hovering over US$14 billion annually since 2012-13 fiscal year. It crossed the US$15 billion mark in fiscal 2014-15.
The amount dropped 2.5 percent to a little below the $15 billion mark in 2015-16 and to a six-year low of US$12.77 billion in the last fiscal year.
Bangladesh receives the bulk of its remittances from six Middle-East countries — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.
