Facebook gets VAT registration from NBR

Social media giant Facebook today got Value Added Tax (VAT) registration from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) after two years of stalemate.

Three entities of Facebook--Facebook Technologies Ireland Ltd, Facebook Ireland Ltd and Facebook Payments International Ltd--got Business Identification Numbers (BIN) from Dhaka South VAT Commissionerate, said Pramila Sarker, additional commissioner of the field office.

"Very happy for Facebook's BIN registration. Humbled to be of assistance to the global tech giants in Bangladesh. Thanks to the NBR and its entire VAT team," said Mamun Rashid, managing partner of PwC Bangladesh, who will act as local consultant of Facebook in Bangladesh.

Facebooks move comes nearly two weeks after Google and e-commerce company Amazon's got BINs here complying with the rule imposed by the NBR in July 2019, which said that tech giants have to either set up offices in Bangladesh or appoint agents such that the government can collect VAT on the advertisements and other services provided by them to local firms.

However, internet companies were unwilling to set up representative offices here.

They were also not interested to pay the indirect tax or VAT to the NBR through agents or share data on sales containing information about customers on the ground of privacy breaches and security risks.

Early last year, the NBR decided to allow tech giants to get direct VAT registration without opening local offices in order to bring them under the tax network.

However, progress had been slow over the last one year owing to technical and legal complexity, according to officials.