Google pays Tk 2.30 crore VAT to NBR

GBNews24 Desk//

International tech giant Google has paid Tk 2.30 crore as value added tax (VAT) to the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

It has paid Tk 55.77 lakh for the month of May and Tk 1.74 crore for June, said SM Humayun Kabir, Commissioner of VAT Commissionerate, Dhaka South.

It makes them the second biggest tech firm after Facebook to pay VAT in Bangladesh, after the social networking giant paid Tk 2.44 crore on July 29 earlier.

The global search engine giant on May 25 this year obtained business identification number (BIN) in Bangladesh to VAT-related services, including VAT payment and VAT return submissions from the NBR.

Earlier, the NBR amended the VAT Act to provide direct VAT benefits to companies.

In November last year, the High Court directed to collect all kinds of dues, revenues, VAT and tax, from internet based companies including Facebook, YouTuben Microsoft and Google.

According to the Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act 2012, companies like Facebook, YouTube and Google have to register for VAT and set up offices in Bangladesh or hire VAT agents.

NBR sources said that it was decided international technology companies like Facebook, Google, YouTube and Microsoft would not be able to conduct business in Bangladesh without VAT registration.

According to the decision, the companies will either have to set up offices in Bangladesh, or hire VAT agents. If they wanted to do business in Bangladesh, they would have to pay taxes.

In other words, there are some complications including not having a permanent office in Bangladesh, which may be solved permanently in the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2021-22.

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 early last year.

A Singapore branch of Citibank NA remitted the VAT amount to the account of the NBR on behalf of Google Asia Pacific Pte, also based in Singapore.