Country's supermarket owners have found the current package VAT system "discriminatory" since such taxing is creating uneven competition among the traders.
The supermarkets are charged 4.0 per cent trade Value Added Tax (VAT) while other grocery shops pay a lump-sum amount of VAT under the package.  
Bangladesh Supermarket Owners' Association (BSOA) in a recent letter to the finance minister demanded either allowing them to enjoy the package VAT or scrap the system to make the rate uniform for all.
In the letter, BSOA secretary-general Zakir Hossain said the superstore businesses will lose competitiveness and face closure if the "discrimination" continued.  
The association argued that prices of products would be higher in the super-shops due to 4.0 per cent trade VAT compared to that of the shops enjoying package VAT.
Under the package VAT system, businesses pay a lump sum to the government as the all-encompassing tax on the basis of area of their trading.
In the budget for the current fiscal year, the government has allowed small traders, having annual turnover of up to Tk 8.0 million, to choose package VAT if they find payment of 3.0 per cent turnover tax difficult.
The association leaders found the scope damaging for them, fearing that 90 per cent of the existing shops will come under the package-VAT system.
"The remaining shops will also take the opportunity of package VAT by managing the revenue officials," the association secretary said.
If the superstores collect 4.0 per cent VAT from consumers, in this situation they will lose the buyers, he wrote.
NBR officials said the proposal of the superstore owners was forwarded from the ministry of finance.
It will be scrutinised and a summary will be sent to the finance minister for necessary action, they said.
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Source: The Financial Express