The VAT Intelligence Directorate of National Board of Revenue (NBR) has lodged a case against a local sales partner of Facebook for noncompliance with the VAT (value-added tax) Law. The company was charged for not paying VAT for three consecutive months, and for violating the VAT law. The NBR’s VAT Audit, Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (VATAIID) filed the case against the local partner of Facebook, Httpool Bangladesh Ltd, under the VAT and Supplementary Act-2012 for violating the law, confirmed it’s Director General Moinul Khan. The directorate said after Facebook appointed Httpool as its authorized sales partner in Bangladesh in June, it collected Tk6.22 crore from 31 advertisers in bills for posting advertisements on Facebook and the firm deducted Tk93.32 lakh in VAT at 15% rate. But they did not deposit the deducted money to the government exchequer although they were supposed to file VAT returns every month. Httpool has offices in 32 countries throughout the world and it is also the authorized sales partner of Facebook in 10 other countries. According to the VAT Intelligence Directorate, Httpool Bangladesh obtained its business identification number (BIN), known as the VAT registration number, in May this year with the office address in Shah Ali Tower situated at Karwan Bazar in the city. Upon investigation it was found that the office did not exist at all and no activities took place there. During their investigation, they also found that Httpool Bangladesh also did not inform the authorities about changing their office address. Hence, the directorate termed the money as being at a risk state and they filed the case for not depositing the deducted VAT, not filing VAT returns, and for being non-existent without approval from the VAT authorities, said the VAT Intelligence Directorate. Being tipped off, they started the investigation and finally filed the case, DG Moinul informed, adding that the VAT intelligence forwarded the case to Dhaka South VAT commissionerate for disposition of the case. The directorate will also examine whether Httpool Bangladesh Ltd is involved in any other irregularities, they said.
