NBR asks Petrobangla to pay Tk990cr in unpaid VAT

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has asked Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) to pay more than Tk 990 crore in unpaid VAT accumulated from December 2020 to July 2021.

Its Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) sent a letter to Petrobangla in this regard in the first week of last month.

Petrobangla attended a hearing at the LTU on December 20 last year to settle the VAT amount, but no solution could be reached.

LTU VAT Commissioner Wahida Rahman Chowdhury told The Business Post Petrobangla had paid VAT from August to October last year but not in November.

When asked why the state-owned organisation failed to pay the VAT from December 2020 to July 2021 properly, she said, “They [Petrobangla] said they had a shortage of money and sought help from the Finance Division.”

Wahida also said Petrobangla might pay the outstanding VAT after getting government assistance. “They paid income tax and customs duty but not VAT.”

The NBR official said the VAT amount had stood at around Tk 1,540 crore during the eight months and Petrobangla paid Tk 550 crore.

Petrobangla’s net payable VAT in December 2020 was Tk 196 crore while it paid Tk 83 lakh. In January last year, the VAT amount was nearly Tk 200 crore, and the organisation paid Tk 97 crore.

From February to July last year, the VAT amount was Tk 1,151 crore, and Petrobangla paid Tk 447 crore.

Petrobangla Director (finance) Benjamin Riazi told The Business Post the state-run company pays VAT collected from customers.

“There are some loopholes in the VAT-tax law. Besides, there are some VAT sectors that Petrobangla thinks are subjected to double taxation,” he said.

“We generally write to the NBR and the Finance Division when the double taxation issue arises. We sometimes get some tax rebates from the NBR, and we also take subsidies from the government. We can say or decide what to do next when these issues will be solved,” he added.