The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The National Board of Revenue has ruled out rumours that the agency is going to combine its Value Added Tax (VAT) and income tax wings.

"It is ridiculous. It is not so easy, this will never happen," NBR chairman Muhammad Abdul Mazid told UNB by telephone yesterday.

He said the two departments might help each other for better functioning but any possible merger was beyond imagination.

"Working styles of these two departments are different; there is no way to merge the two units."

The revenue agency boss made the thing clear as there was widespread speculation that the two departments would be merged to ease revenue collection procedures.

When his attention was drawn to the combination of VAT and income tax unit of the large taxpayers unit (LTU), he said that the two units were not merged, rather they just came under one member.

"They were not merged any way," he added.

Last year, the NBR introduced a 15-digit unified number, combining TIN and business identification number (BIN), to ensure exchange of information between income tax and VAT department of the LTU.

"The identification number was merged, not the two units. It's very clear, there is no scope for confusion," he said.

The NBR has further revamped its procedure with a target of Tk 54,500 crore in revenue collection for the current fiscal year.