VAT Registration Mandatory for Trade Fair Participators

The National Board of Revenue has asked all domestic and foreign companies participating in the Dhaka International Trade Fair to get temporary VAT or VAT registration from the Dhaka East VAT Commissionerate. The company said in a recent order. At the same time, several directives of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) have to be followed.

The special directive was issued on January 1 by the NBR to remove the complexity of collecting various taxes including VAT.

This information was given by the public relations department of NBR on Saturday (January 8). According to the directive, this year's Dhaka International Trade Fair is being held in the permanent infrastructure of the fair located at Purbachal of Rupganj in Narayanganj instead of Agargaon. The VAT collection activities of the fair were conducted through the Customs, Excise, and VAT Commissionerate (West) of Dhaka. But at present, the place of the fair is under the Commissionerate of Customs, Excise, and VAT, Dhaka-East. That is why there is a need to re-issue the general order regarding the collection of VAT from trade fairs. As a result, it is necessary to determine the tax payment method for the collection of applicable VAT against the goods supplied from the fair stall.

The instructions include:

1. All the organizations participating in the Dhaka International Trade Fair will have to separately obtain temporary VAT registration for the fair time from the Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate, Dhaka-East for the fair stalls. This stall will be included in the central registration. If any centrally registered organization under the Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate of Bangladesh participates in the trade fair, temporary registration for the fair stall will have to be taken separately.
2. Since separate temporary registration has to be taken for the fair stall, in general, if any centrally registered manufacturing company sets up an outlet or stall at the fair, the tax invoice for sale has to be provided through Form VAT-8.3. VAT at the applicable rate has to be submitted to the code of the main commissionerate providing central registration.
3. In case of delivery of goods from the fair stall to the buyer / final consumer, such centrally registered entity will submit the deposit at the business level against the temporary registration number issued in favor of the fair stall through treasury invoice in the code of Dhaka East Customs and VAT Office.
4. In cases where advance / booking money is received from the stall of the Central Registered Establishment but without delivery or supply to the buyer from the fair stall, it is subsequently supplied from the Central Registered Production Site or any Centrally Registered Supply Station. The registration must be submitted in the code of the main commissionerate providing the registration.
5. All the organizations participating in the fair have accepted the temporary registration.
6. Foreign stalls wishing to participate in the fair must also obtain temporary registration from the Commissionerate of Customs, Excise and VAT, Dhaka (East) during the fair and pay the applicable VAT against the supply of goods/services from the fair stall to the Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate, Submit to code. Similarly, other rules must be obeyed.

This time the fair has 23 pavilions of different categories, 27 mini pavilions, 162 stalls, and 15 food stalls. There are 11 stalls of foreign companies including Turkey, Iran, India, Pakistan, and Thailand. On January 1, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the month-long Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) at Bangabandhu Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Center (BBCFEC) in the eastern part of the capital.