NBR to relax rules on new car import

The National Board of Revenue is going to relax a rule for the importers of brand new cars that was incorporated in the latest budget to prevent tax dodging through under invoicing.

NBR officials said the board is going to recommend the finance ministry to allow importers to produce to customs department invoices certified by an authentic organization like the national chamber of commerce or any other association of the exporting country, instead of the manufacturers. The government in the current budget included a provision that importers of new cars would have to submit the invoice issued by the manufacturer to the customs department for assessing the value of a car to prevent tax dodging.

The importers earlier used to produce price certificate or invoice of new cars issued by the agent or dealer, not the manufacturers.

There was an allegation that the value of the cars which was shown in the dealer invoice was much less than the real market value of the car.

But the new car importers opposed the new rule in the budget and started hectic lobbying with the government to change the rule claiming that the manufacturers of the new cars did not agree to export cars directly to Bangladesh, said an official of the NBR.

He said that they would send a proposal to the finance ministry to change the rule to allow certificates of organisations like the national chamber of commerce or any other association of the exporting country.

He, however, could not say whether the proposed change in the rule would be much effective to stop tax dodging.

It was observed that the assessable value of a brand new car fixed on the basis of dealer's invoice was less than half of that of a used car of same quality.

For instance, the assessable value of a new 1500 CC sedan car stood at $8270 while the assessable value of a used car of the same feature stood at $7550 at customs in 2010.

There is no way of being the value of a new car less than that of a used car of the same features imported from same country unless the importers make it through under invoicing, said the officials.

Source : New Age