Commissioner of Customs, Excise and VAT Anamul Haque speaking at a view exchanging meeting at the World Trade Center's Bangabandhu Conference Hall on Thursday. -AA
As part of the use of modern technology to collect the Value Added Tax (VAT), 20 ECR machines have already been introduced to measure the performance in 20 companies, said Customs, Excise and VAT Commissioner Enamul Haque.
He said this during a view exchanging meeting organized by the Chittagong Metropolitan Shop Owners Association at the World Trade Center's Bangabandhu Conference Hall on Thursday. Enamul Haque said despite the interest in paying the VAT, there are some ambiguities among the businessmen on some areas of the law.
He urged all to give VAT from their respective positions in the formation and prosperity of the country.The Commissioner requested the members of each business association of Chattogram to take responsibility of VAT registration and filing of returns by January 31.
The President of the association Md Ohid Shiraj Chowdhury presided over the meeting. Chittagong District Shop Owners Association President Saleh Ahmed Suleiman, Chairman of the Teribazar Business Association Osman Gani Chowdhury, Chittagong Decoration Owners Association Md Sahabuddin, Acting President of Akhtaruz-zaman Center Traders Association Iqbal Hossain, and Senior Vice President of Chittagong Electricity Equipment Traders Group Kutub Uddin spoke on the occasion.
Md Ohid Shiraj Chowdhury presented a memorial to Commissioner of Customs, Excise and VAT Anamul Haque. Additional Commissioner of Customs, Excise and VAT Mahbubur Rahman presented a documentary on the calculation of VAT on various levels of business transactions.
Speaking at the inaugural address, Chittagong Chamber President Mahbubul Alam said, businessmen always want to conduct business smoothly. The government passed the law in the 2017. But we have been able to convince the Prime Minister that preparations are not enough to implement this law totally, including the import of adequate ECR machines. The Prime Minister then suspended the law for two years at our request. We want to pay VAT without harassment.
Mentioning that businessmen have some objections to VAT he said that it is not possible to set a new VAT on a 5 year old calculation. In many cases, after paying the tax VAT at the import stage, the goods are still taxed at the time of sale.
These issues need to be addressed properly. India, Pakistan's GDP is below 5 percent, while Bangladesh's growth is more than 8 percent, which is really surprising. He hoped that if the businessmen work together positively by putting forward the slogan, "Save the traders, save the country", he hoped the country would go further.The president of the chamber said a help desk would be set up in the chamber to establish communication between businessmen and officials on VAT and tax related issues.
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