NBR takes steps for quick disposal of long-pending cases

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has taken an initiative to have the long-pending cases involving huge money disposed of on priority basis.

The NBR sources said the revenue collecting authority planned to maintain a strong contact with the attorney general's office to resolve income tax, VAT and duty-related cases pending with the country's highest court.

They said NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman and Attorney General Mahbubey Alam at a meeting recently discussed the necessity of quick disposal of the pending cases, acceleration of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and improvement of internal procedures to reduce the cases.

Of the 22,747 cases pending with the High Court, 2,711 are income tax-related cases involving Tk 7,413 crore, 17,470 import duty-related cases involving Tk 4,835, and 2,566 VAT-related cases involving Tk 13,534 crore.

Some 375 cases related to import duty, involving Tk 119.87 crore, have so far been settled through ADR.

The number of income tax-related cases settled through ADR is 305 involving Tk 115 crore while the number of VAT-related cases settled through this system is 5.

The revenue collecting authority got a target of Tk 176,370 crore for the 2015-16 fiscal against Tk 135,028 crore last year.

This year, an amount of Tk 64,971 crore will come from income tax, Tk 64,262 crore from VAT, and Tk 18,752 from import duty.