NBR extends deadline for e-BIN

The National Board of Revenue on Sunday extended the deadline for traders to update their existing business identification numbers (BIN) into online-generated 13-digit ones to October 31.

The revenue authority has also requested Bangladesh Bank not to allow any bank to open letters of credit (LC) for imports without the 13-digit e-BINs from November 1.

VAT Online Project Director Syed Mushfequr Rahman 

made the request through a letter to BB’s Deputy Governor Ahmed Jamal.

The move comes after the tax authorities found commercial banks opening LCs using 9-digit and 11-digit BINs, both of which had become obsolete after an August 14 deadline for obtaining 13-digit e-BINs, generally known as VAT registration numbers.   He said the VAT collection process was being hampered as a significant number of existing VAT-payers were yet to update their BINs. Implementation of VAT returns submission online will also not be possible without the 13-digit e-BINs, he said. 

As of September 30, around 37,186 businesses either obtained 13-digit e-BINs or updated 9-digit BINs in line with an NBR directive based on the new VAT and Supplementary Duty Act-2012 which came into force that month.

A total of 1.66 lakh businesses obtained 9-digit BINs till June 30 this year from the NBR’s online BIN registration system introduced in March 2017.

Another 5,346 traders got registered with the system as turnover VAT-payers. 

There are several lakh 11-digit BIN holders who obtained those before the introduction of the online BIN registration system. 

The NBR in the first week of July asked the businesses to update their existing BINs in VAT online system database.  

The online system will provide new 13-digit BINs adding four new digits tracing businesses to their previous 9-digit BINs. 

Rahman, in the letter, said it was necessary to update the BIN database of businesses as the country’s VAT system would be managed online under the new VAT law and opening LCs without 13-digit e-BINs would create complexities in future. 

He said a significant number of VAT-payers did not obtain 13-digit e-BINs within the August 14 deadline. 

Officials said in early September the NBR instructed field-level VAT offices to issue new BINs within three days of getting applications from traders as a large number of applications had remained pending with the offices due to various reasons, including technical problems.