The High Court today upheld the government’s claim of Tk 119 crore in income tax from Grameen Kalyan, a nonprofit charitable company founded by Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus.
The HC bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir delivered the verdict after holding a hearing on seven income tax reference applications filed by Grameen Kalyan challenging the legality of the claims made by the government as income tax from the company for the fiscal years.
The details of the HC verdict will be known once its full text is released.
However, Assistant Attorney General Tahmina Poly told The Daily Star that the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has claimed Tk 555.94 crore as income tax from Grameen Kalyan for the fiscal years of 2011-2012 to 2016-2017.
Grameen Kalyan has paid Tk 436.65 crore as the income tax and it has to pay the rest Tk 119.29 crore as the income tax to the state following the HC verdict, she said.
Tahmina said the Deputy Commissioner of Taxes will issue a notice with a time limit to Grameen Kalyan for the payment of due income tax.
Meanwhile, Grameen Kalyan’s lawyer Sarder Jinnat Ali told this correspondent that the HC has rejected the income tax reference applications filed by his client although all the documents, including the relevant audit reports, have been produced before this court, as those were not submitted before the Taxes Appellate Tribunal during hearing its appeals earlier.
Grameen Kalyan will now decide whether it will move any appeal before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, he said.
Advocate Sarder Jinnat Ali could not specifically say the amount of money that will be paid by Grameen Kalyan.