Grameenphone on Monday paid Tk 140 crore as value-added tax on 2G licence renewal fees to the National Board of Revenue within the deadline set by the tax administration, officials concerned said.
On the other hand, three other mobile operators–Banglalink, Robi and Citycell– paid a portion of their dues of Tk 196.76 crore as tax on SIM and RIM card sales and sought time extension for paying the remaining amount.
After a long legal battle, the GP paid the money and other three operators have agreed to pay, a senior NBR official told New Age on Monday.
Out of Tk 90.90 crore that Robi owes to NBR it paid around Tk 27 crore, said Robi officials. But the information could not be confirmed by NBR officials concerned.
Banglalink paid Tk 25 crore from its due of Tk 82.33 crore and Citycell paid Tk 1.5 crore and promised to pay Tk 10 crore by March 31 from Tk 23.53 crore.
‘We decided to give three operators three months for paying the money in three equal instalments by June 15,’ he said.
He said that it would create a win-win situation for the mobile operators and the NBR.
Earlier in second week of March, the large taxpayers unit (LTU-VAT) sent a letter to GP seeking the payment a Tk 140 crore in seven days as the Appellate Division on March 14 rejected the mobile operator’s petition seeking an order for maintaining a status quo over a High Court verdict on rebate on 15-per cent VAT the GP claimed for 2G licence renewal fees.
According to NBR, in 2012, Grameenphone claimed Tk 140 crore rebates on 15-per cent VAT on second instalment of 2G licence fees.
Refusing their claim, the NBR had asked it to pay the money as according to the law it could not take such rebate.
Then GP went to the High Court against the NBR decision and the court gave a verdict in favour of NBR.
Finally on March 12, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court rejected GP’s petition seeking an order maintaining a status quo over the order of the High Court which had given a verdict in favour of NBR.
In another development on February 20, the NBR won another legal battle against Banglalink, Robi and Citycell in the Appellate Division.
After winning the legal battle, the NBR sent three separate letters to Robi, Banglalink and Citycell on March 14 and asked them to pay a total of Tk 196.76 crore which they did not pay as supplementary duty and VAT on SIM and RIM card sales from August 2006 to March 2007.
In last week, LTU asked the operators to pay the money by March 25 to avoid attachment of their bank accounts.
NBR planned to attach bank accounts of the operators to recover the money if the operators failed to pay the dues in time.
In this context, GP paid the dues as 15 per cent VAT for 2G licence renewal fees and the other three operators sought time. (Source)
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