Bangladesh Investment Development Authority has recommended the National Board of Revenue for introducing a uniform tax identification number for both income taxpayers and VAT payers, merging the electronic taxpayers’ identification number, e-TIN in short, and business identification number, BIN in short.
As per proposal of the authority there will be only one tax identity number for a person who will use that number both for income tax and value-added tax purpose.
Currently, an individual needs to obtain both e-TIN and BIN if he or she runs a business.
The e-TIN is obtained for the purpose of income tax payment while BIN is meant for the purpose of VAT payment and running other business activities including export, import, trading and manufacturing.
An individual has to take separate BIN, known as VAT number, for each of the branches of his or her business units.
Bangladesh Investment Development Authority, BIDA in short, made the recommendation of introducing a uniform number aiming to eradicate the constraints the current practice places on investment.
This is an imperative to improve the country’s ranking in ease of doing business category, it said.
National Board of Revenue officials said that BIDA, country’s premier investment promotion body, had been placing such proposal at bilateral meetings held at July and December last year with the tax authorities in the presence of prime minister’s SDG affairs chief coordinator Abul Kalam Azad.
BIDA has been arguing that the move will improve the business environment by reducing the stages of registration for business by one step.
Introduction of a single number similar to the national identity number will facilitate interconnectivity with databases of other government agencies, it said.
It will also make easier the process of information collection by National Board of Revenue, it said, adding that the system of unique tax number existed in many countries around the globe including various developed countries.
The authorities have also proposed to arrange a study tour to a country where such unique number exists to gain knowledge about both use and process.
A senior NBR official on Monday told New Age that both the authorities decided to examine the possibility of introducing a single tax identity number for both income tax and VAT payers.
He said that National Board of Revenue was now working on the issue though it thought that the proposal was technically not implementable.
As per the existing law and practice in the country, a trader needs several BINs for each branch of his or her business or factory unit, he said, adding that it would not be possible to merge all the BINs and e-TIN.
Additionally, as tax payers and traders have become accustomed to the system, its removal will only create problems, he said, adding that the number BIN holders is very insignificant compared with that of e-TIN holders.