Feb 02,2020
A salesperson looks at products on display at a superstore in the capital. The National Board of Revenue has received very poor response from large businesses over the mandatory installation of a specialised software for record keeping and payment of value-added tax by the December 31, 2019 deadline. — New Age photo
The National Board of Revenue has received very poor response from large businesses over the mandatory installation of a specialised software for record keeping and payment of value-added tax by the December 31, 2019 deadline.
Although the revenue board does not have specific data on the software usage, VAT officials and NBR-enlisted software developers said that the number of traders using the software was estimated to be less than 300 across the country.
The number of businesses eligible for using the customised software is around 6,500, out of 1.38 lakh business identification number holders, they said.
Under the circumstances, the revenue board has decided to extend the deadline for installation of the software to February 29.
The NBR on June 30, 2019 made the use of the specialised software mandatory from September 1 last year to maintain records of sales and other transactions involving VAT by traders having Tk 5 crore in annual turnover.
It extended the deadline to December 31, 2019 for the first time as it failed to execute the decision.
The NBR also decided to collect data about businesses eligible for using the software, how many businesses were now using the software and how many firms had applied to the field level VAT offices seeking permission for using the technology, officials said.
They said that the NBR would in a day or two ask the field-level VAT offices to provide the required data to facilitate enforcement of the provision of mandatory use of the software.
According to the NBR, businesses will have to procure the software from the designated firms to preserve books of accounts and VAT-related documents and provide the VAT officials with the data as per requirement of the VAT offices.
Businesses which will use their own software will have to update the existing software as per the NBR-approved specifications. The software is designed to generate and print automated reports of VAT returns and other documents related to purchase, sales and challans, according to the NBR specifications.
The VAT officials will have access to the software for audit and other examinations.
The revenue board has so far enlisted 24 software developers for include into the software features specified by the revenue board for manufacturers, traders and service providing entities for record keeping and payment of VAT.
Chief executive officer Farhana A Rahman of UY Systems Ltd, one of the first firms to become enlisted with the NBR, said on Sunday that the progress in installation of the software by large businesses was very slow.
The number of businesses which had so far installed the software from the enlisted firms would be below 300, she said. ‘We estimate the number of eligible traders to be between 6,000 and 6,500 across the country,’ she said.
Many of the businesses are communicating with the firms and obtaining demonstrations on how to use the software but are not placing work orders or not providing the required data to customise the software, Farhana, also senior vice-president of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, said.
She, however, said that the traders had been recently showing interest in purchasing and installing the software following the various steps taken by the NBR. But the NBR should strictly enforce the provision to get the expected outcomes from the sector, she added.
