NBR to get full-fledged legal wing soon
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is set to create a separate full-fledged legal wing to deal with its thousands of pending cases with superior courts.
The new move is part of the NBR's reform and modernisation drive under the Modernisation and Automation (MAP) project, aiming to generate more revenue from disputed cases.
Over Tk 10,000 crore government revenues have been stuck up for long due to the slow pace of disposal of cases and inefficient dealing, an NBR high official said.
“The NBR's present law cell does not have the capability of in-depth review, nor it can move forward with adequate legal analysis for protecting government's revenue interests. As a result, in most cases the verdict goes in favour of the clients who face the cases by appointing reputed lawyers,” AM Masrur Ahmed, member (Customs) of NBR, told The Daily Star recently.
According to him, as many as 15,800 cases now remain pending with higher courts, jeopardising the government efforts to generate more income from internal resources.
Of the pending cases, 12,000 are customs-related, 1800 value added tax-related and 2000 income tax- related.
A consultant of the MAP project expressed his hope that the new law wing will be able to address all legal issues, both functional and statutory, leading to a significant rise in the annual revenue earnings.
However the NBR during the last one and half years dealt with over 200 cases against big tax evaders mostly by appointing senior advocates.
The NBR high officials, even members and chairman, have to spend a lot of time in resolving the tax evasion issues, which also hampered the NBR's normal revenue generation goals, another official said.
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