HC orders to dispose of Dr Kamal’s ‘tax evasion’ issue within 3 months

The High Court (HC) has ordered the Taxes Appellate Tribunal concerned to dispose of a petition involving alleged tax evasion of Dr Kamal Hossain & Associates within the next three months, reports news agency UNB.

An HC bench of justice Farah Mahbub and justice Muhammad Mahbub Ul Islam on Monday passed the order after hearing the petition submitted last year.

The bench also gave a directive to the tribunal to accept the appeal to be filed by the defendant for hearing.

Barrister Tanim Hossain Shawon, a counsel of Dr. Kamal Hossain & Associates, said that they earlier submitted an appeal against an allegation of tax evasion to the tribunal, but it was rejected mentioning that the deposit was not paid.

Later, a writ petition was submitted with the High Court challenging the rejection of the appeal. The HC on Monday passed the order to dispose of the appeal after hearing the petition, the lawyer said.

According to the statement, Dr. Kamal submitted tax returns showing an income of over Tk 14 million for FY 2018-2019.

But, the National Board of Revenue demanded over Tk 69 million and over Tk 8.73 million as tax and interest respectively against the properties worth over Tk 201.1 million owned by Dr. Kamal.

The Associates filed an appeal to the joint commissioner concerned against the demand by the NBR on 30 December, 2019.

Later, the associates submitted a petition to the Taxes Appellate Tribunal after the joint commissioner rejected their appeal on 25 June, 2020.

Without accepting the petition for hearing, the tribunal rejected it mentioning lack of a fixed amount of deposit as per the law.

In June last year, another writ petition was submitted with the HC challenging the tribunal’s decision.