The cabinet on Monday approved in principle the draft Value Added Tax Bill-2012 to increase revenue collection from businessmen by expanding the area of taxation. 
The National Board of Revenue placed the draft proposing provisions for easing the taxation process at the weekly cabinet meeting presided over by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, at the secretariat.
‘The draft law will now be sent to the law ministry for vetting. Once the bill is enacted into a law, collection of VAT will increase with expanded tax network,’ cabinet secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting.  
The cabinet on February 6 sent back the draft bill which sought amendments to the VAT laws, and formed a five-member committee led by prime minister’s finance adviser Mashiur Rahman for further examining the draft.
The National Board of Revenue placed the draft bill to update and make the VAT law, enacted in 1991, friendly to the tax-payers.  The cabinet observed that the language of the draft should be easier and more concise.
The cabinet secretary said a major objective of the proposed bill was to increase the government’s revenue earnings by creating ‘voluntary compliance’ among the stakeholders, mainly the businessmen, for paying taxes.
He said the draft suggested reducing the exemption area of VAT and improving services to the tax-payers.
‘VAT collection will be on the basis of transaction and invoice. It will be based on a single registration for an individual business and the tax official will impose tax on the sold products only,’ the cabinet secretary said, adding that the tax officials’ discretion for imposing advanced dues would go.
He said the best tax-payers would be awarded and the provision for alternative dispute resolution had been included in the draft for settling tax-related cases outside the court. 
Monday’s cabinet meeting also approved the science and technology ministry’s proposal to ratify an agreement with the Russian government for setting up Ruppur Nuclear Power Plant in Pabna to ensure energy security of the country, Musharraf Hossain said.
During the prime minister’s visit to Russia last year, an agreement was signed for setting up a two-unit nuclear power plant at Ruppur in Ishwardi Upazila with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts each, he added.