Furniture trader makes Tk33 lakh, shows only Tk33,000 to VAT office

A furniture trader in Dhaka has shown its sales in a month to be Tk33,000 to the VAT authorities despite actually selling products worth Tk33 lakh, VAT Intelligence officials found during a drive on Saturday.

The furniture trader had informed the VAT office that his sales had been low amid the pandemic, reads a press release.

But a team of VAT intelligence officials led by Assistant Director Mahidul Islam conducted a drive at Jounpur Furniture in West Kafrul, based on a complaint filed by a customer.

The complainant, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he bought furniture from the store, but was given a fake VAT invoice. Later, he filed a complaint with the VAT Intelligence.

Investigators further found that the company was selling furniture using fake and duplicate invoices even though it was VAT registered.

The shop was keeping different accounts for VAT, announcing nominal sales information by hiding the actual sales information. As a result, the VAT collected from the customer is not being deposited in the government treasury.

During the operation, the authorities seized the commercial documents of the trader from the furniture shop, where they saw that in one month alone, about Tk5 lakh was evaded.

According to the VAT Act, 15 percent VAT is applicable on this organisation.

The intelligence team also raided another furniture shop — Homewood Furniture — in the same area, where they found evidence of concealment of sales data.

Officials recovered actual sales data for August and September 2020, according to which, sales were shown to be Tk25,000 and Tk64,000, respectively. But the actual sales in those two respective months were Tk4 lakh and Tk19.29 lakh.

The intelligence team is further verifying the documents seized from both shops.

At the same time, they are investigation the bank accounts of both tax evaders. After further investigation, VAT Intelligence will take action against them according to the law.