Dhaka, Sept 28 (V7N) – The Cabinet today gave in-principle and final approval to the draft Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026, bringing back the provision for submitting VAT returns within 15 days of the end of each tax period.
The approval was given at the 22nd meeting of the Cabinet held at the Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in the chair, according to a Cabinet Division press release.
The draft was placed by the Internal Resources Division to amend Section 64 of the Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act, 2012, with a view to making the field-level revenue collection process more dynamic. Under the proposed amendment, the provision of submitting returns within 15 days after the end of every three tax periods will be replaced by the requirement to submit returns within 15 days after the end of each tax period.
If the 15th day for submission of a return falls on a government holiday, the return will have to be submitted on the next working day.
However, government, semi-government and autonomous organisations, banks and insurance companies, as well as individuals or organisations submitting zero returns, will be allowed to submit returns within 20 days of the end of the respective tax period.
The amendment reverses a previous provision that allowed businesses to file consolidated VAT returns for three tax periods (quarterly) instead of submitting separate returns every month. The government had previously introduced the quarterly return system to ease the compliance burden on businesses. The restoration of the monthly return submission requirement is aimed at improving revenue collection and monitoring. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has been working to modernise VAT administration, including through the expansion of the online VAT return submission system and the integration of the National Single Window.
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