Express (July 12, 2011)
The government will make installation of its prescribed and customised software mandatory for big companies, which pay Value Added Tax (VAT) and Supplementary Duty (SD) above Tk 5.0 million annually. The NBR directive in this regard will come into effect from January 2012.
The new rules are aimed at ensuring recorded transaction of businesses in a bid to check concealment of sales data. The businesses will have to keep VAT-related documents and accounts in the software and send those to VAT offices, if required.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) issued an order recently to enforce the new rules from next calendar year.
Talking to the FE Monday, a senior revenue board official said big companies would come under the new rules, not the small and medium ones.
The NBR earlier introduced mandatory rules for installation of Electronic Cash Register (ECR) for ten categories of small and medium businesses.
"We will prescribe specific software for big companies that pay above Tk 5.0 million VAT annually. The companies, which have already installed the software taking prior approval of the NBR, are not required to install the new one," he said.
He added the NBR would frame a detailed guideline on installation of the software by VAT registered big companies.
The NBR is planning to establish interconnectivity with the big companies through the software to monitor their business activities and tax payment, he said.
The board will enlist some software developer companies for preparing the NBR prescribed software, which the big companies can purchase for their establishments, the official said.
The NBR order has stipulated a 12-point eligibility criterion for the software companies to apply to the NBR for getting the assignment for developing the software.
The order said the software should be prepared keeping a provision of access terminal for NBR or the VAT authorities. It should have sufficient capacity to keep the data secure and confidential.
Officials said unrecorded transaction is the main barrier to tax collection. During the last few years, the VAT authorities devised different strategies to check it.
The software will keep the data of big volumes of transaction, which is not possible through ECR or point of sale (POS), said another official at NBR.
The NBR has received a poor response on installation of ECR in small businesses as those businesses are now enjoying a package system of VAT, he said.
The revenue board continued the package system of VAT in the current fiscal although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has long been suggesting the NBR to scrap the system.
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