Petrobangla asks Chevron to pay AIT in 90 days
Jannatul Ferdushy || BusinessInsider
Chevron logo
USA-based oil and gas exploration company Chevron’s Bangladesh chapter has been asked to pay Advance-Income-Tax to the Chattogram customs worth Tk 3,48,526 against some goods it had imported in August.
Petrobangla, following an inter-official meeting on 27th October issued a letter signed by Subrato Odhikary, a Customs Officer of Chattogram to Chevron which is working in Bangladesh’s Bibiyana gas field, asking it to pay the dues, said an official of Petrobangla.
Petrobangla is a government-owned national oil company of Bangladesh. It explores, produces, transports, manages and sells oil, natural gas and other mineral resources.
On 25th August, Chevron received some goods without any prior permission from Petrobangla and the company did not deposit any AIT to the government treasury.
“Chevron has released some of the imported products from Chattogram customs without paying the AIT, so we have notified them to pay the dues within 90 days,” Subrato Odhikary told Business Insider Bangladesh.
“Under an agreement, Chevron imports some taxable products and some tax-free products. But this time, they have imported some tools which are taxable. Therefore, the customs authority has issued the letter to Chevron asking for the unpaid AIT by next 90 days,” A. K. M. Benjamin Riazi, Director (Finance) of Petrobangla told Business Insider Bangladesh.
He said Chevron officials could have informed Petrobangla details of the products that it had imported.
No Chevron officials responded to the repeated calls made by Business Insider Bangladesh.
According to the letter, the products were released on special consideration under 96/345(7) NBR letter No.10(11) on 19 July ’22 but Chevron owes National Board of Revenue the AIT.
Chevron is the largest producer of natural gas, accounting for over 60 percent of the total domestic gas production. Chevron Bangladesh also produces over 80 percent of the domestic condensate.
Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry.
