The National Board of Revenue is set to launch online VAT payment system on Thursday to facilitate traders to pay value added tax without visiting tax offices.

Initially, traders having bank accounts with HSBC, Midland Bank and Prime Bank will be able to pay VAT online, officials said.

The facility will be widened gradually for traders having accounts with other commercial banks.

Three other banks will soon come under the system, they said.

VAT Online Project of the revenue board developed the e-payment system so that traders can pay VAT and supplementary duty online from their bank accounts along with filing VAT returns online.

The project has already completed user acceptance test of the e-payment module and found satisfactory result of the system, officials said.

NBR chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem will formally inaugurate VAT online payment system at a programme to be held at NBR headquarters in Dhaka.

Officials said that the introduction of VAT e-payment would make VAT payment process easier and hassle-free and reduce time and cost of compliance.

VAT offices will also get the copy of payment electronically, they said.

NBR in last October introduced online VAT returns filing but traders could not entirely avail the benefit in absence of e-payment as they required to visit banks for payment.

Out of around 1.80 lakh registered business identification number (BIN) holders, known as registered VATpayers, around 40,000 traders file VAT returns online in June.

The government took the VAT online project in 2014 with a cost of Tk 690 crore to automate VAT administration under the new VAT and SD Act-2012.