Country’s three major telecom operators—- Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink have not been paying value-added tax (VAT) of Tk 4.38 billion despite repeated notices since April last year.

Bangladesh Telecom-munication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) sent five notices to the telecom operators from April 2019 to January 2020, asking them to clear the VAT. But the operators did not pay heed to BTRC’s notices in the last 15 months.
Sources at BTRC said 15 percent VAT is imposed on the payments of revenue sharing, spectrum charge, social obligation fund, annual license fee, spectrum assignment fee-4G and share transfer fees.

 According to BTRC, Grameenphone has not paid Tk 2.23 billion while the dues of Robi and Banglalink is Tk 1.06 billion and Tk 1.07 billion respectively.

In a letter sent in the middle of the current month to National Revenue Board (NBR), BTRC mentioned that the telecom operators were served five notices in April, September, in October 2019 and January 2020.

As the operators did not pay heed to the notices, they were asked to pay the due VAT directly to NBR and submit the related documents to BTRC.

In a meeting in January 2020 at the Post and Telecommunication Division, it was decided that BTRC will only realise telecom-related charges and fees from the operators and NBR will take measures to collect VAT from telecom operators.

BTRC chairman Jahirul Huque said the regulator has put more concentration on realizing the unpaid VAT from the mobile operators.
However, the operators are silent about the repeated attempts of BTRC over the unpaid VAT.

Taimur Rahman, Chief Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Officer of Banglalink, said, “The 15 per cent VAT payment is an industry issue. As per the law, BTRC is required to obtain VAT registration to enable mobile operators to pay VAT. We have been pursuing BTRC and NBR to arrange the required VAT registration, which is still pending. We will pay the required VAT immediately once the legal requirement of registration is complied with.”

 GP and Robi have not made any comments regarding the issue.