Business Desk :
Global tech giants have deposited a total of Tk 30 crore in value-added tax (VAT) to the state coffer since they received VAT registration from the National Board of Revenue (NBR), officials said.
Of them, Facebook paid nearly Tk 13 crore through its three entities since the social media giant secured the Business Identification Number (BIN) in June this year from the Dhaka South VAT Commissionerate.
Google deposited around Tk 12 crore since it got the BIN in May 2021, said a senior official of the field office of the NBR.
Amazon received the VAT registration in May. Microsoft got the BIN through Microsoft Regional Sales Pte Ltd Singapore in July.
So far, seven tech firms, including Facebook Technologies Ireland Ltd, Facebook Ireland Ltd and Facebook Payments International Ltd, have received the VAT registration.
In July 2019, the tax administration made it mandatory for tech companies to set up representative offices or appoint agents in Bangladesh in a bid to generate revenue from the services, including advertisements, they provide to local firms in Bangladesh.
Initially, internet companies were neither willing to set up the representative offices nor pay the VAT via agents. They also had not wanted to share data on the sales containing information about customers on the ground of privacy breaches and security risks.
Subsequently, the NBR allowed internet giants in 2020 to get BINs directly without opening local offices with a view to bringing the tech firms under the VAT net.
Progress had been sluggish initially for technical and legal complexities. Later the firms began to get BINs and file statements on their sales and transactions with local VAT authorities.
On December 1, Netflix, American subscription streaming service and production company, signed up for VAT registration, said SM Humayun Kabir, commissioner of the Customs, Excise & VAT Commissionerate, Dhaka (South).
The collection of VAT, a consumption tax, from the tech firms is likely to increase following the registration of Netflix, officials said.
In 2016, Netflix announced its plans to expand to 130 countries outside the US, including Bangladesh.
One estimate puts the number of subscribers in Bangladesh at 200,000, according to Pi Strategy, a professional services firm based in Dhaka.
