Govt to try to introduce single rate VAT system: NBR Chairman

National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan on Monday said that the government would try to introduce single rate VAT (value added tax) system in the country in a bid to reduce the leakage in revenue collection.

“It’ll be better for us if we can go for a single rate VAT to reduce the leakage in revenue collection and it will also be very easy to administer. Definitely we’ll try for that,” he said.

The revenue board chief said this while addressing a press conference on the occasion of VAT Day 2024 at the conference room of the NBR in the capital.

The theme of this year’s VAT Day is “We all will pay VAT and take participation in development”.

Abdur Rahman said that NBR would try to scrap the VAT exemption gradually to improve the VAT collection. “But, it does not mean that this has to be done right now. We’ll do that in consultation with the stakeholders,” he said.

He said that the NBR would supervise the VAT net and would also bring those who are now currently outside the VAT net.

“We’ve to expand our tax net at the quickest possible time. If we can expand the VAT net, then we’ll be able to reduce the revenue collection gap that already took place in the first five months of the current fiscal year,” he said.

The NBR chairman said that the country is now going through some tough economic time. “If we want to recover our country from this economic situation and thus advance further, we don’t have any other option.”

Asking the VAT officials to work with utmost honesty and sincerity, Rahman said that for the sake of the welfare of the mass people, the government has waived various types of taxes.

“As a result, the revenue collection has suffered in the last couple of months. So, there is no alternative to reducing the tax waiver.”

Rahman said that whenever the economic situation of the country improves, then it has to try to increase the revenue collection.

“We’re going towards that direction. We’ll rationalise the tax waiver, we’ve already started our job. Already we’ve scrapped some SROs and some others are in the pipeline,” he added.

The NBR chairman reiterated his call to get rid of the culture of tax exemption. “Otherwise, we won’t be able to increase our revenue collection.”

In his introductory speech, the NBR chairman also said that an initiative has been taken to build a robust VAT system to provide all VAT services by making the VAT system completely online and while sitting at home.

He mentioned that the NBR is gradually adopting the online system from the paper system. In addition to simplifying the VAT registration, filing and VAT payment procedures, activities have been taken to motivate the stakeholders and introduce automation in all stages of work.

Already, the VAT registration, filing and VAT payment system has been automated.

“We’re currently trying to introduce the e-invoice system to build a flawless VAT system,” he added.

Abdur Rahman, also the secretary of the Internal Resources Division (IRD), said that various public welfare-oriented activities have been taken, including providing various types of exemptions for the convenience of the general consumers, reducing the VAT rate on various daily essentials such as sugar, eggs, potatoes and edible oil in the context of the current reality, and withdrawing excise duty on hajj passenger tickets.

He said that the NBR is committed to creating a business-friendly environment and building a strong tax culture through timely reforms by involving consumers, traders, and industrial owners from all walks of life in the country, and above all, and to materializing the dream of building Bangladesh without discrimination.

“The success of the VAT system depends on the widespread participation of stakeholders. It is hoped that all these promotional activities will be quite helpful in building a tax culture in the country, which will contribute to increasing VAT collection in the future,” he said.

The NBR chairman said the desired development would be achieved in its continuation. “We’ll become a happy, beautiful and prosperous country.”