All who hold the existing 11-digit business identification numbers (BIN) have to obtain new registration before next July to fit in the new VAT and Supplementary Duty Act 2012 provisions.
The existing BIN will not work after introduction of the new law so businesses will have to obtain fresh BIN online by replacing the existing one.
Such obligation for the businesses to adapt themselves to the new law was disclosed Wednesday by Md Rezaul Hassan, NBR member and Project Director of the VAT online project of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Businesses will not be able to pay VAT or connect with the system anyway without having new BIN, he said at a workshop held at the Institute of Diploma Engineers Bangladesh (IDEAB) in the city.
The VAT Online Project (VOP) of the NBR organised the workshop with the Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) for familiarisation with the nitty-gritty of the new VAT and SD Act.
Senior Secretary of the Internal Resources Division (IRD) and NBR chairman Md Nojibur Rahman handed over certificates and delivered speech at the closing ceremony.
Syed Mushfequr Rahman, Deputy Project Director of the VOP, said the work on online BIN-registration system was completed on August 30, 2016.
"It is decision of the higher authority when they will start the online BIN registration," he told the function.
Earlier, the NBR had declared its plan to issue online BIN from VAT offices to some 30,000 compliant businesses who submit VAT returns regularly. Later, it faced difficulties to collect required information from field offices about the VAT payers.
The NBR collected information of some 12,000 payers. Of them, it received complete information of less than 1200 businesses that submit VAT returns.
"We have deferred our stand. Now, businesses have to obtain BIN on their own," Mr Mushfeq said.
Mr Rezaul Hassan said the VOP management will form a taskforce comprising VAT commissioners for change management.
"We will hold meeting with the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) to know their opinion before stating the online VAT registration," he said.
"We are taking time to launch the online BIN registration as two parallel numbers may confuse businesses," he said.
Responding to a query, he said the online BIN will be launched in March even if the new law is not introduced.
Barrister Jahangir Hossain, member of VAT policy, explained the reasons for introduction of new VAT law to replace the existing one.
The NBR chairman said the revenue board is working to strengthen its training capacity. "We have formed board of directors in Dhaka and Chittagong tax academies to boost training activity there."
The NBR also has decided to set up customs training academy in eight divisions across the country, he told the economic reporters.
"The NBR will also arrange training of trainers (ToT). It will arrange training programmes for business associations in 64 districts and also for the FBCCI members," he added.
The revenue board chief hoped for the formation of a functional setup for three wings of NBR: income tax, customs and VAT.
He responded to the queries of ERF members regarding major challenges of the day on the financial front like money laundering, capital flight, combating smuggling, raising tax-GDP ratio etc.
Zakir Hossain, DPD of VOP, spoke on basic features of the new VAT law and differences between old and new ones.
Zakia Sultana, VAT commissioner, gave an introduction on the NBR while Nahida Faridy, additional commissioner, spoke on VAT and its emergence.
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Source: The Financial Express