The National Board of Revenue (NBR) today named nine companies as the highest payer of value-added tax (VAT) for 2021-22 fiscal year where five firms retained their positions for the second consecutive year.

Olympic Industries, one of the largest biscuit makers of Bangladesh, deposited the highest amount of VAT paid by the consumers followed by Unimed Unihealth Pharmaceuticals Ltd and General Pharmaceuticals Ltd in the manufacturing category.

Olympic Industries was the highest VAT payer in the previous fiscal year also.

In trading category, local consumer electronics maker Walton and supermarket chain Unimart continued to remain the biggest VAT depositors to the state coffer for the second year.

Hamco Corporation, a concern of automotive battery and solar inverter maker, has been named as the third highest VAT payer for 2021-22 fiscal year.

Hamco was one of largest taxpayers from Dhaka district in 2020-21 fiscal year also.

In the services category, two mobile financial service providers, bKash and Nagad, retained their positions as the two of the top three VAT paying entities.

The NBR has named Aarong as another firm as one of the top three VAT payers in services category.

"We are humbled to have been recognised as the country's top VAT collector in the services sector for the second consecutive year," said Kamal Quadir, founder and CEO of bKash.

"As the largest mobile financial service provider in the country, we will continue to operate regulated financial services for the betterment of Bangladesh."

"Under the regulation of Bangladesh Bank, bKash has served Bangladeshis for over a decade by offering a broad range of digital financial and payment services that are compliant, transparent, secure and hassle-free," he said.

"bKash ensures that applicable VAT and TAX are deducted at source for every transaction made on its platform and goes directly to the government treasury."

"Nagad has once again come out as a top VAT-paying company -- as recognised by the revenue board, which reflects our continued efforts," said Tanvir A Mishuk, founder and managing director of Nagad Ltd.

"Since Nagad's inception, we have been trying to simplify people's life as much as possible, helping the country establish a cashless society though our services," Mishuk said.

"Our efforts started from simplifying the account opening process to easing money transactions to ensuring the seamless payment process, which will also help us get better business output from the market. The government also got huge revenue from us though it."

In another notification, the revenue administration also announced the names of 138 firms as top VAT payers at district levels.

In Dhaka, the NBR named 22 companies as the highest VAT payers in three categories -- manufacturing, trading and services.

The tax administrator has been making the names of top VAT depositing entities public in line with a policy framed in 2005 to encourage compliance among businesses.

The policy states that a firm would qualify if it pays 10 percent higher VAT than the previous fiscal year.

The VAT is the biggest source of revenue collected by the revenue authority.

The indirect tax, paid by the consumers, was 40 percent of the total Tk 299,620 crore tax revenue collected in 2021-22 fiscal year.

The share of VAT in revenue collection declined a little bit but still accounted for 39 percent of the total tax revenue collection of Tk 327,667 crore, according to the finance ministry data.

"We are proud to get recognition nationally as the highest taxpayer for two years in a row. Walton conducts business by abiding all the laws and have contributed to the GDP growth of the country. We hope Walton will continue to do its best in the economic development of Bangladesh," said Md Rayhan, managing director of Walton Plaza.