The High Court on Thursday upheld the National Board of Revenue’s demand for Tk 666 crore in income tax from Grameen Kalyan, founded by Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus.
The court also rejected the two writ petitions filed by the organisation against reassessment in 2017.
A bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Rezaul Karim delivered the verdict.
Deputy attorney general Abdus Samad Azad told journalists the deputy commissioner of taxes would issue a notice to Grameen Kalyan demanding Tk 666 crore in income tax for five tax years between 2012 and 2017.
Grameen Kalyan would be given 30 days to pay the tax under the law, with simple interest added to the amount since 2017, he said.
Grameen Kalyan’s lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun said his client would appeal against the verdict.
Another HC bench had earlier ruled in favour of Grameen Kalyan, allowing it 60 days to appeal to the tax commissioner.
But the NBR appealed and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on March 11, 2024 set aside the judgement and sent the cases back to the High Court for a fresh hearing.
On August 4, 2024 – the day before Sheikh Hasina was ousted as the prime minister amid the July uprising – the High Court rejected the same writ petitions asking the Grameen Kalyan to pay the amount,
But the judgement was withdrawn on August 29, 2024, citing conflict of interest involving one of the two judges and the cases were sent to the chief justice for the assignment to a new bench, which rejected the writ petitions again on Thursday.
Prof Muhammad Yunus was sworn in as the interim government chief adviser on August 8, 2024.
Although the tax dispute was resolved on August 30, 2016, the Central Intelligent Unit of NBR reopened and reassessed the tax files of the Grameen Kalyan company in 2017 when the dispute between Prof Yunus and the AL government intensified.
Prof Yunus faced at least 170 cases then, including one in which he was jailed for six months in absentia.
He was cleared in most of the cases, including the conviction and sentences, through judicial process after he became the chief adviser.
The tax dispute mainly concerns Tk 285.58 crore received by Grameen Kalyan from Grameen Telecom as dividend income.
The NBR, however, held that the money was in effect interest income or a return on investment and should be treated as income from other sources rather than dividend income.
Under an agreement, Grameen Kalyan was entitled to reassessed 42.65 per cent of the profit from the dividend received on shares.
Grameen Kalyan reported the total dividend income of Tk 285.83 crore for the relevant tax year.
Of the amount, Tk 285.58 crore was shown as dividend received from Grameen Telecom.
The tax authority questioned the classification of the Tk 285.58 crore as dividend income and reassessed the organisation’s tax liability.
The NBR also found that no tax had been deducted at the source from the payment made by Grameen Telecom.
It consequently concluded that treating the income as dividend had resulted in a loss to the government revenue.
The reassessment documents contain a minor discrepancy in the amount provided to Grameen Telecom.
The tax records mention Tk 53,25,62,941, while the Grameen Kalyan audited report shows Tk 53,25,60,108.
