Bangladesh - Revenue Mobilization Program for Results: VAT Improvement Program Technical Assessment
This operation will support the VAT Improvement Program to assist the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in streamlining and modernizing Value Added Tax (VAT) operations and establishing an integrated VAT Management System for the purposes of implemen...
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Format: | Other Financial Sector Study |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
Washington, DC
2014
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/01/19795263/revenue-mobilization-program-results-vat-improvement-program-technical-assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20075 |
Summary: | This operation will support the VAT
Improvement Program to assist the National Board of Revenue
(NBR) in streamlining and modernizing Value Added Tax (VAT)
operations and establishing an integrated VAT Management
System for the purposes of implementing the new regime. The
primary focus of the program is to prepare the
administration to be able to administer the new VAT, which
is to be introduced in July 2015. The new VAT Act, 2012
provides for a modern VAT scheme based on few exemptions and
self-assessment. The Act provides the legal basis for the
new VAT administration, and the impetus for a shift from
manual to automated and modernized core tax business
processing. The program is part of the government s broader
tax reform agenda as articulated in the Tax Modernization
Plan 2011-16 (endorsed by Parliament in June 2011), which
envisages policy and institutional reform alongside a
program for automating NBR operations to improve services to
taxpayers, reduce administrative costs for taxpayers, and
improve compliance. The VAT improvement program aims to
widen the tax base by enhancing voluntary compliance, and
reducing non-compliance. The ultimate goals are to increase
VAT revenues and enhance the transparency of the VAT
administration in Bangladesh in order to achieve its
medium-term revenue target of a tax-to GDP-ratio of 12.2
percent by FY 2016; and to enhance the VAT compliance.
Towards this objective, the program will also address those
structural weaknesses embedded in the tax system that result
in skewed tax bases and provide wide opportunities for
evasion and corruption. Importantly, the VAT improvement
program will support the strategic reform agenda, also
supported by the IMF s Extended Credit Facility to enable
NBR to fully implement the new VAT law. |
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