Fearing a significant downtrend in revenue collection due to the ongoing political disturbance, National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to expedite the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process for fetching revenue from the revenue related cases pending in various courts.  

The NBR made the decision as the BNP-led 20-Party Alliance has been enforcing indefinite blockade since January 5 with shutdowns during various periods that caused a huge loss for the businesses across the country.

According to the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), the loss of the businesses during the recent unrests has so far reached Tk 75,000 crore with the RMG sector at the top with Tk 30,000 crore.

Apart from expediting the ADR, the Board has also decided to engage highly reputed lawyers to fight for the government body in the courts, according to a high official of NBR.

He also said that it is quite natural that the revenue collection will be affected when the business activities of the country have stalled or witnessed a slowdown.  

In this regard, the NBR official mentioned that the Value Added Tax (VAT) will be the worst affected due to the ongoing destructive politics, followed by duty and income tax.

According to the NBR sources, some 12,538 cases are now pending in the High Court that involved Tk 2,861 crore. Of the total amount, the cases of Chittagong Customs are the highest with 11,164 that involved Tk 1,531 crore.

The cases of Dhaka Bond Commissionrate are 674 (Tk 801 crore), Dhaka Customs (283 cases - Tk 312 crore), Chittagong Customs Bond Commissionarate (674 cases - Tk 198 crore) and Kamalapur ICD (68 cases- Tk 17.31 crore).

The NBR introduced ADR on July 1, 2012 to speed up disposal of the revenue-related cases through out-of-court settlement.

Some 350 cases came under ADR involving tax revenue worth Tk 750 crore. Of the cases, the NBR so far settled 160 cases and realized Tk 150 crore in income taxes for the public exchequer.

The NBR official said that the reputed lawyers would be appointed for the next three years for the pending cases. Initially, three expert lawyers will be appointed to handle the cases apart from the government lawyers.

“The Finance Minister has given his consent for this,” the official said adding that the NBR had earlier appointed such lawyers temporarily back in 2005, but after their tenure expired this system was not followed for various reasons.

Besides, the number of pending cases in the Taxes Appellate Tribunal has increased to 1,895 in 2013-14 fiscal, compared to 1,088 cases in FY 2012-13 and 1,112 cases in FY 2011-12.

The number of cases disposed of by the Taxes Appellate Tribunal was 5,563 in FY 2009-10. That number came down to 4,493 in FY 2013-14.

In July-December period of the current fiscal, some 2,231 cases were lodged in the tribunal as against 2,384 cases during the corresponding period of last year.

The budget for the current fiscal set an overall revenue collection target of Tk 1,82,954 crore. Of the target, the share of National Board of Revenue (NBR) is estimated at Tk 1,49,720 crore, an increase of Tk 24,720 crore over the last fiscal.