Shawdesh Desk:

About 30,000 cases pending with the Supreme Court, and appellate commissioners and tribunals have withheld the collection of Tk 80,000 crore in revenue.

The cases include 11,007 involving Tk 40,389 crore in income tax, 10,330 involving Tk 27,152 crore in value-added tax and 8,828 involving Tk 12,622 crore in customs proceeds, as National Board of Revenue statistics show.

Lawyers and revenue experts have said that vested interests try to delay the disposal of the cases and used the lawsuits as a tool to withhold the revenue for years.

They suggested that the number of High Court benches should be increased for an early disposal of revenue-related cases.

Four High Court benches deal with appeals relating to with VAT, customs and excise, and the references against income tax claim and writ petitions against NBR actions demanding taxes.

Lawyers and revenue experts also emphasise the need for Alternative Dispute Resolution system for quick disposal of revenue disputes.

Many businesspeople have a tendency to file lawsuit against revenue claims and linger the disposal of the cases to hold back the collection of the revenue as many years as they can, a National Board of Revenue member told New Age in the past week.

If a revenue officer demands Tk 1 crore in tax, the business firm files a law suit with the joint commissioner of taxes and appeals to the Taxes Appellate Tribunal, the High Court and the Appellate Division in case of the company’s defeat, he explained.

The company consider its success if it can hold back the collection of the revenue for five years by lingering the judicial procedure, he said.

Those businesspeople try to delay the payment of revenue and make profit investing the money in business in the meantime, the NBR official said.

He, however, said that the chief justice, Obaidul Hassan, took steps, including increasing the number of High Court benches from two to four, for quick disposal of revenue cases.

Senior lawyer Mustafizur Rahman Khan rejected the NBR officials’ allegation, stating that business people did not have any benefit in the delayed disposal of VAT cases as they needed to pay interest along with the original claim for the delayed payment of the revenue.

He, however, agreed that some businesspeople developed a practice to delay the payment of revenue by dragging lawsuits relating to the income tax and customs as they needed to pay no interest for the period of the lawsuits.

Mustafizur suggested the revenue board to ask its officers to behave tax-friendly, instead of their high-handedness in collecting revenue.

He said that the number of High Court benches should be increased for speedy disposal of the revenue-related lawsuits.

Mustafiz also called for appointment of skilled judges and law officers for speedy disposal of revenue cases.

According to NBR data, 5,541 income tax-related references and writ petitions involving Tk 29,164 crore in revenue are pending with the High Court.

Of the income tax cases, 4,166 are pending with the Tax Appeals Commissioners, 1,302 with the Tax Appellate Tribunals, 4,367 with the High Court, 32 with the Appellate Division, 912 with the lower courts and the rest 228 miscellaneous cases and references are pending with different courts.

The pending tax cases include 1,476 disputes of large taxpayers involving Tk 17,873 crore.

Of the 1,476 cases, 438 are pending with the Appeal Commissioners, 341 with the Appellate Tribunal and 697 with the High Court.

Banks, insurance and leasing companies, mobile operators, pharmaceutical companies and directors of the companies that pay large amount of tax are treated as large tax payers.

Asked about initiative to reduce backlog of revenue cases, attorney general AM Amin Uddin refused to comment.

‘I cannot make any comment without knowing which case has been remained pending for long,’ he said.

Of the 8,828 customs cases, 2,218 are pending with the Appeal Commissioners, 432 with the Appellate Tribunals, 5,403 with the High Court, 472 with the Appellate Division, 294 with the lower courts dealing with certificate cases and 9 miscellaneous cases with different courts as of April 30.

The collection of Tk 8,685.92 crore in revenue remains stuck in 5,403 customs cases pending with the High Court while Tk 806.54 crore remain stuck in 472 customs cases pending with the Appellate Division.

Of the 10,330 VAT cases, 3,521 involving Tk 19,946.28 crore in revenue are pending with the High Court and 133 involving Tk 1450.99 crore in revenue are pending with the Appellate Division as of April 30.

The rest of the VAT cases are pending with different courts.

Former commissioner of taxes SM Jahangir Alam, now director of Bangabandhu Satellite Company Limited, suggested appointing a focal point officer in each tax office to maintain round-the-clock communication with the courts.

It is necessary to set up a separate prosecution unit like the Anti-Corruption Commission for speedy disposal of revenue cases, he said.

Jahangir said that liaison offices of large taxpayer units might be set up to enhance communication with the attorney general office for expeditious disposal of revenue cases in Supreme Court.