According to a rule drafted by the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the safeguard tax was supposed to have been executed from yesterday but sources said it was withdrawn following strong opposition from a donor agency.

The NBR had proposed to form a safeguard authority for identifying safeguard taxable products and examining if excess import of certain products from certain countries really hurts the interest of the local industries.

Meanwhile, the government has introduced Universal Self Assessment system for submitting tax returns and Unified Taxpayer's Identification Number (UTIN) from the current fiscal. Sources said these were the preconditions for loans from both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

As per the Universal Self Assessment system the tax officials will receive returns of taxpayers without any question and the tax officials will have to take approval of the NBR for inquiring into any taxpayer's return.

Under the UTIN system, a person having TIN as well as business identification number (BIN) after getting registered with the VAT authority will be given a UTIN in a manner prescribed by the NBR.

NBR officials said the new system will make the process of income tax return submission easier and stop tax evasion or concealment.

The NBR yesterday issued a number of ordinances and statutory regulatory orders (SROs), which adjusted taxes on different products and services as well as amendments in the tax related rules and regulations.

An amendment has been made in the Income Tax Ordinance 1984, which empowered the Central Intelligence Cell (CIC), a body of the NBR, to ask for bank account information of the taxpayers.

As per the amendment the CIC will carry out investigation to prove tax evasion or concealment or any other irregularities relating to taxes and collect evidence in support of tax offences or tax frauds for recovery of tax with penalty and to suggest prosecutions.

ADJUSTED TAXES
Duty on high-definition television (HDTV) sets imported through baggage rules has been increased by 233 to 500 percent in the current budget.

The budget imposed Tk 15,000 per set duty on 21-inch Plasma, LCD, TFT or similar type of televisions while the duty will be Tk 20,000 for television sets between 22-inch and 29-inch sizes. The previous duty on such television set was Tk 2,500 and Tk 6,000.

The same SRO says Tk 35,000 per set duty has been fixed for 30-inch to 42-inch HDTV and Tk 50,000 for sets the size of 43-inch and above.

Taxes on different qualities of cigarettes have been increased by 6-17 percent as the budget restructured the price ranges of cigarettes. According to the new price range, taxes on low quality cigarettes will be increased by 12 percent, medium quality by eight percent, high quality by six percent and premium quality by 17 percent.

NBR sources said the government's annual revenue from the tobacco sector is now about Tk 3,000 crore and they hoped that the new tax structure will add another Tk 350 crore revenue.

Import duty on mobile phone sets has been fixed between Tk 100 and Tk 300; it was Tk 500 in the proposed budget. The approved budget also lowered taxes on SIM cards to 20 percent from 60 percent of the proposed budget. The budget, however, brought the SIM card providers under the VAT net.

Specialised physicians, immigration advisers and lawyers will have to pay 4.5 percent VAT on their fees while dental clinics will have to pay 2.25 percent VAT on their earnings. Earlier, the budget had proposed 15 percent VAT on them.

Import stage VAT on telecommunications machinery and computer monitor (import and production stage) has been withdrawn in the final budget.

The duty on computer and accessories was fixed at five percent from the proposed 10 percent.

To support the local industries, the government withdrew 10 percent supplementary duty on skin cream at production stage and 20 percent supplementary duty on air conditioner parts at import level.

The budget exempted import duties on newsprint only for newspaper uses. Newspaper owners can enjoy zero tariffs in importing newsprint following quotas fixed by the information and commerce ministries.

Commercial importers, however, will have to pay 25 percent duty as per the previous approved budget.

The appeal tribunal fee has been increased to Tk 1,000 from Tk 500.