'Safeguard tax' drafted to save local industries
NBR proposes more power to detect tax-dodging
Rezaul Karim Byron
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has drafted a rule to protect local industries by imposing 'safeguard tax' on import of products that will pose threat to export items.The rule, to be promulgated through an ordinance and applied from July 1, also proposed to widen power of the members of the NBR's Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) in detecting tax evasions. According to the draft rule, a safeguard authority will be formed headed by the chairman of Bangladesh Tariff Commission, who will decide on infrastructure requirements and required manpower for the authority. The chairman will identify safeguard taxable products and examine whether excess import of certain products from certain countries really hurt the interest of local industries. He would then recommend the level of safeguard tax to be imposed on import of the particular products. Local industries will be able to file complaints with the safeguard authority, according to the draft rule. It also outlines an investigation policy for the authority. According to the policy, the authority may recommend an interim tax on the imported product on the basis of a preliminary investigation. It may take eight months or a timeframe to be specified by the government to finish the investigation. The probe report would propose taxes and duration of its regime. The government would repay the tax amounts to the importers if the allegations were found false, according to the policy. The NBR rule also brought an amendment to the Income Tax Ordinance 1984 to entrust the CIC members with more power. According to the rule, they will be able to carry out intelligence work to gather information about taxpayers. The CIC members will also be able to detect tax evasions and concealment of income and offences as described in the Income Tax Ordinance. They will be able to collect evidence relating to tax offences or tax frauds for recovery of taxes with penalty. Prices of cars and jeeps between 3550 and 4549 cc will go up as the draft rule proposed 250 percent supplementary duty on import of those vehicles. It also proposed 350 percent duty on vehicles over 4550 cc. Earlier the duty was 100 percent on cars and jeeps over 3000 cc. However, supplementary duties on cars and jeeps below 3000 cc will decrease by five percent once the rule is issued. Prices of cellular and fixed phone sets will also climb as the rule proposed to up tariff on each imported set by Tk 300.
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