Counterfeiters reaping the benefit of Bangladesh’s quest for more VAT

Counterfeit cigarettes are floodingBangladesh’s market and contributing to the country’s missing its VAT collection targets, according to a story in The Financial Express.

The government had set itself the target of collecting an additional Tk27.78 billion in VAT during this financial year, and the biggest contributor was to be tobacco consumers, who were expected to hand over Tk15.16 billion.

But during the past four months, VAT collections came in Tk18.00 billion short of expectations.

The chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Ghulam Hussain, recently held a meeting with VAT officials and instructed them to focus on three major sectors – tobacco, pharmaceuticals and cement.

The officials reportedly said they had found that fake cigarettes were flooding the market.