VAT collection under LTU witnesses 30pc growth in Feb

FT ONLINE

Revenue collection under the Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) of Value Added Tax (VAT) witnessed a 30 percent growth in February of the current fiscal (FY18) as the unit collected Taka 3,563 crore, up Taka 822.67 crore from February of previous fiscal year (FY17).

During the first eight months (July-February) of fiscal year 2017-18 (FY18), LTU collected a total of Taka 18,272.59 crore, up by 19 percent from Taka 17,229.36 crore of the same period of FY17.

VAT LTU commissioner Md Matiur Rahman said the unit has been possible to achieve higher growth in revenue collection because it has taken a time-befitting strategy and intensified supervision, VAT auditing and recovery of arrears.

He said the LTU realized a significant amount of outstanding VAT from Petrobangla, mobile-phone operators and other establishments.

Rahman said different establishments get tax waiver from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) but some others are dodging tax on various excuses. "We've already been able to identify such some cases and a significant amount of VAT has been collected from such establishments," he added.

At present, LTU looks after VAT, supplementary duty and excise duty of a total 170 larger taxpaying establishments. LTU usually collects around 56 percent of the total revenue collected in a fiscal year.

The government has targeted to mobilize Taka 91,254 crore as VAT in FY18.