Dhaka, Aug 21 – Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has submitted a report before a High Court bench stating that three mobile operators, Grameen Phone, Banglalink and Robi had given over Tk. 87.44 billion to Google and Facebook in last five years.
Advocate AKM Alamgir Parvez Bhuiyan, counsel for the BTRC, submitted the report yesterday before the HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Md Ashraful Kamal.
Barrister Mohammad Humayun Kabir Pallab appeared for the petitioner while deputy attorney general Tushar Kanti Roy represented the state.
Md Nahidul Islam, Deputy Director of system and service department of BTRC prepared the report, according to the BTRC sources.
Meanwhile, National Board of Revenue (NBR) submitted another report on the same issue but the HC expressed dissatisfaction over it for not giving details of collecting revenue from the internet based agencies.
The HC bench directed the NBR for the resubmission of report by October 19 and asked it to elaborate the steps taken to collect revenue from Internet-based agencies.
The Court also directed the NBR to acknowledge that what kinds of steps were taken to collect revenue from internet based company.
Earlier, on April 18, 2018, the High Court had ordered the investigation of all net-based agencies, including Facebook to probe into possibilities of tax evasion.
At the same time, orders were given to collect revenue for adverts on net platforms, sales of domains and license fees. Court also issued a ruling, asking why an order should not be given to collect necessary revenue from Internet-based companies.
The court directed to the finance ministry secretary, governor of Bangladesh Bank, chairman of NBR, secretary of law ministry, secretary of information and technology ministry, chairman of BTRC, and postal and telecommunications ministry to make the expert investigation committee.
At the same time the defendants were asked to respond to the ruling within four weeks.
Earlier on April 9, 2018 a writ was lodged against tax evasion of Facebook and all Internet-based institutions.
The writ asked to bring all net-based institutes under the tax, form of a policy to run the institutes and determine how much money these platforms are taking for their services. – Staff Reporter
