Although the scope of business and commerce in the country is expanding rapidly, the number of VAT registered companies is still disappointingly low.

National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman Abdur Rahman Khan said that the main challenge in collecting VAT is that the VAT net is very limited. In fact, the majority of business companies in the country are still out of registration.

He made these remarks at a press conference organized on the occasion of “VAT Day” at the Revenue Bhaban in Agargaon in the capital on Tuesday (December 9).

The NBR chairman also said: “The scope of business in our country is very large. But the number of VAT payers or registered VAT payers is still relatively small. The biggest problem is the small VAT net. A large part of the businessmen remains out of VAT registration.”

He said that currently about 644,000 companies are under VAT registration in the country. But considering the number of shops, businesses and service sectors in the market, this number is very insufficient.

The NBR has set a target of bringing 100,000 more new businesses under VAT registration this month.

Abdur Rahman Khan also said that in the long term, it plans to include 3-4 million businesses in this network within the next 1-2 years.

He also mentioned the initiative to make the digital VAT system easier to reduce the hassle of traders.

“Our dream is to launch such a simple system online, where a trader can submit his return with just one click.”

The NBR chairman expressed the hope that if the scope of VAT registration can be expanded, the desired discipline and transparency will be established in the revenue sector.

In addition, the NBR said that like every year, “VAT Week” will be observed from December 10-15.

This year’s theme is ‘Register on time, pay VAT correctly’. Awareness campaigns will be conducted across the country on this occasion.