Food village restaurants hide Tk200cr sales info to evade VAT
The restaurants have evaded a total of Tk26.43 crore VAT
Food Village and Food Village Plus, two popular highway restaurants in the northern part of the country, have hidden sales information of around Tk200 crore to evade Value Added Tax (VAT), alleges the VAT Intelligence and Audit Department of the National Board of Revenue.
VAT intelligence officials claim that the two restaurants of the SR Group have concealed the sales information to evade VAT, though they had collected the VAT amount from customers.
According to VAT intelligence officials, both the restaurants have concealed actual sales information worth Tk198.63 crore. And by hiding the information, they have evaded a total of Tk26.43 crore as VAT.
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Director General of VAT Intelligence Dr Moinul Khan told The Business Standard that they raided the SR Group's head office in the Nikunja area of the capital based on a tip-off.
They seized office documents and computers during the raid. After analysis, they found evidence of evasion of a huge amount of VAT. Preparations are underway to take action against the company under the VAT Act, he said.
VAT intelligence officials say that on September 14, VAT detectives raided and seized the company's commercial accounts.
Examining the seized documents, they found that Food Village Plus in Sirajganj showed sales data of Tk23 crore in 3 years and 6 months from February 2017 to July 2020.
The documents showed that VAT of Tk2.52 crore was paid.
However, the seized documents show that the actual sales amount was more than Tk123crore. Food Village Plus had hidden sales of Tk100 crore at this time.
In this case, the amount of VAT evasion is Tk9.44 crore. According to the VAT Act, the interest stands at Tk4.17 crore, at 2% interest.
At the same time, Food Village Ltd is another restaurant at Sherpur in Bogura on the Dhaka-Rangpur Highway. And this restaurant is also owned by the same group.
The restaurant paid VAT worth TK2.51 crore between February 2017 to June 2020. It showed that it had sales of Tk23.8 crore during this time.
However, the actual sales of the restaurant during this period was more than Tk122 crore.
By concealing information, the restaurant has evaded VAT worth Tk8.93 crore. And the outstanding VAT amount is now Tk11.92 crore including interest.
