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NBR claim baseless

Say 7 organisations about tax exemption 'anomalies'

Staff Correspondent
Seven legally independent companies bearing Grameen name yesterday protested the government claim that they had illegally availed tax exemption facilities using the name of the microcredit bank.
In a joint statement, the companies termed the allegation completely baseless and said they had paid income taxes and submitted tax returns regularly.
The companies are Grameen Fisheries and Livestock Foundation, Grameen Capital Management Ltd, Grameen Communications, Grameen Shakti, Grameen Udyog, Grameen Trust and Grameen Kalyan.
The protest came a day after the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in a report said the companies had enjoyed income tax exemption facilities unlawfully.
The tax authorities submitted the report to a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
During the year-long investigation, the NBR has checked income tax documents of 13 organisation of Grameen Bank.
Of them, eight --Grameen Fisheries and Livestock Foundation, Grameen Danone Foods, Grameen Capital Management Ltd, Grameen Communications, Grameen Shakti, Grameen Lidyog, Grameen Trust and Grameen Kalyan — had availed various income tax facilities illegally, said the NBR report.
After the cabinet meeting, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said companies owned by Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, not by Grameen Bank, had obtained tax benefits in the name of Grameen and did not pay income tax.
He said the NBR would ask them for the income tax because they were not entitled to any such exemption.
In a separate protest statement, Grameen Capital Management claimed that the organisation had been submitting income tax return regularly since its inception in 1999-2000.
Its Managing Director Md Anwar Hossain said all the income tax disputes of the company had been settled.
Nazneen Sultana, managing director of Grameen Communications, also claimed the same about submitting income tax return regularly. She said all but one tax related cases of the company had been solved.
Grameen Kalyan had been paying taxes regularly since its journey began in 1997, said its MD Imamus Sultan, adding, "The company has already paid Tk 70.80 crore as advance income tax for fiscal year 2013-14.
"So the allegation against Grameen Kalyan is imaginary and totally baseless," he said.
Grameen Shakti, which has won international acclaim for its work to spread solar energy in the off-grid areas across Bangladesh, said the company was not even an associ-ated organisation of Grameen Bank.
Its MD Absar Kamal said the company had been paying taxes fixed by the NBR since its inception. Over the last 17 years, the company had paid Tk 16.63 crore as taxes, he said.
In a separate statement, Grameen Udyog claimed that it had never availed illegal income tax exemption facility and that it too had been paying income tax regularly.
It also said Prof Yunus had not set up the companies that obtained tax exemption in the name of Grameen Bank.
Grameen Trust and Grameen Fisheries and Livestock Foundation also refuted the claims made by the finance minister and NBR.