Mr Baker, a popular vendor of confectionery and bakery products in Bangladesh has been dodging VAT and the information was exposed Thursday during an audit raid by the Intelligence and Investigation Directorate at Mr Baker’s offices in Tongi and Gazipur.
Mr Baker has been selling cake and pastry in 29 outlets and sweetmeat in 5 outlets charging 15 percent extra for VAT without providing VAT receipt to its customers.
The directorate has asked concerned banks to submit details of Mr Baker's accounts for primary investigation as the raid team found massive anomalies of VAT evasion in its business.
Director general of VAT Audit, Intelligence and Investigation Directorate Mainul Khan said, “We launched the drive on a specific allegation against Mr Baker of not providing VAT receipt to the customers despite charging for it.”
"We found proof of Mr Baker’s VAT evasion after examining records of its 34 outlets and asked the banks to submit details of its bank transactions,” he added.
On October 18, retired senior secretary Asif Zaman on a Facebook post alleged that he was not provided with VAT receipt despite being charged with 15 precent VAT from a Mr Baker outlet in Uttara.
He sought remedy of this misdeed from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman in that post by lodging a specific complaint against Mr Baker.
During the raid, owners failed to produce any documents of VAT. Also, the raid team couldn’t find any business turnover documents, which they believe were not kept in the offices in fear of a sudden raid of the VAT intelligence.
Officials said, Mr Baker has been filing tax return at their will depriving the government of VAT revenue.
Officials of the directorate are now assessing the amount of VAT Mr Baker has managed evade over the years on the basis of seized documents from the raid.
Moreover, it also advised the office of Dhaka North Commissionerate to supervise the production, supply and sale of Mr Baker products.
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