Staff Reporter :
The Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate, Dhaka (South) has earned over Tk 2 crore Value-Added Tax (VAT) by installing Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs) and strong monitoring.
According a data of the Commissionerate, it has collected the amount by installing 931 EFDs at different restaurants and other business entities in the capital so far.
It has also filed 1072 cases against the traders for evading Value-Added Tax (VAT). Of them, 667 cases have already been settled and the commissionerate earned Tk 14, 20, 855 from the settlement.
Besides, the commissionerate, known as hurt of the Dhaka city, earned over Tk 1.15 crore by conducting preventing activities in the area.
The commissionerate sources said it has already gathered sales information of 318 restaurants of the city and unearthed VAT evasion worth over Tk .16 crore.
The commissionerate has also found around Tk 6 crore untaxed sales by scrutinizing bank transactions of the two business entities, they said.
Traders, however, alleged that they were harassed by the third-parties, which are appointed by the commissionerate illegally.
Firoz Alam Suman, Joint General Secretary of the Bangladesh Restaurant Owners’ Association (BROA), told The New Nation, “We are counting losses having not the EFDs in all the restaurants. So, the authority should set up EFD machines in all restaurants first and then, they can pressurize us.”
He also informed that the NBR has installed the EFDs at only 5 per cent of the restaurants so far.
Refusing the allegations, SM Humayun Kabir, Commissioner of VAT Commissionerate, told this correspondent over phone, “The businesses are not our opponents. We collect revenue for the sake of the country’s development.”
“Having limited officials, sometimes we send some civilians, not permanent appointee, in order to gather correct information about the traders and our officers do cross-check it to collect actual VAT from them,” he added.
He further said, “If the businesses give us written allegation of harassment specifically, we must take action against the persons or officials. We want to create a hassle-free environment.”
“Some dishonest traders want to void our good initiatives. We can’t tolerate this,” he added.
