Shawdesh Desk:

Some 1,50,000 business identification numbers (BINs) face deactivation as the BIN holders failed to comply with the National Board of Revenue’s directive to update their value-added tax registration information by August 14.

BIN is mandatory for all major business activities including export and import.

NBR officials said businesses would be allowed to reactivate their BINs by updating their information and logging in the VAT online system.

Many of the VAT-registered businesses could not get access to the VAT online system for last few days due to technical glitch, they said.

The officials said 10,000 to 15,000 out of some 1,66,000 businesses had updated their VAT registration information by the deadline as per new VAT and Supplementary Duty Act-2012 that came into force on July 1, 2019.

In July, the NBR issued a directive and a public notice to all businesses for updating their VAT registration information by logging in the VAT online site.

Businesses will have to sign up again in the site of electronic BIN (e-BIN) and fill in VAT 2.1 form as per amended VAT act and rules.

The instruction came after the VAT officials detected that around 1,00,000 BIN holders provided fake information in their VAT registration form to avail some undue benefits.

The first deadline for updating the information was July 31, 2019. A poor response from businesses forced the NBR to extend the deadline to August 14, 2019.

VAT Online Project project director Syed Mushfequr Rahman said businesses might face difficulties in conducting export, import and other business activities unless they updated their BINs.

‘Although the deadline is over, the option for updating BIN will remain open for the businesses,’ he said.

He said there were a lot of fake BIN holders in the VAT registration database and the fake BIN holders perhaps refrained from updating their information.

‘We would deactivate the BINs now, but businesses are welcomed to update their information and reactivate their BINs,’ he added.

According to the VOP data, 1,66,000 businesses obtained electronic BINs. The number of old BIN holders was 8,40,000.

Of the e-BIN holders, less than 32,000 businesses submit their VAT returns regularly.

Last year, the NBR introduced instant BIN issuance system to expedite VAT registration system.

However, unscrupulous businesses took advantage of the instant BINs that the NBR issued without verification.

Some commercial importers intentionally abused the e-BIN by obtaining tax benefits as manufacturers from different customs ports.

To check abuse of the instant BIN, the NBR has sought from businesses some additional information that include branch information, input-output data, names of major capital machinery and names of directors and owners.

Abdus Salam, a leader of the Bangladesh Chemical Association, said they were in the dark about the updating of BIN information and the deadline.

He said many of the shops were still closed due to Eid-ul-Azha holidays and they might comply with the NBR order after the holidays.