The High Court has ruled that Grameen Kalyan, an organisation owned by former interim government Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus, must pay Tk 666 crore in taxes claimed by the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
A High Court bench led by Justice Md Mojibur Rahman Miah delivered the verdict on Thursday (September 10), dismissing rules issued in connection with the case.
Barristers Abdullah Al Mamun and Fida M Kamal represented Dr Yunus during the hearing.
The case relates to tax claims covering five assessment years—2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17.
Grameen Kalyan filed two separate writ petitions in 2017 challenging the tax demands following a reassessment by the tax authorities. The High Court initially issued rules after hearing the petitions.
Earlier, on October 4, the High Court had withdrawn, on its own initiative, an earlier judgment concerning the NBR’s Tk 666 crore tax claim against Grameen Kalyan following the July mass uprising.
The earlier judgment was withdrawn by a bench comprising Justice Mohammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir. The case records were subsequently sent to the Chief Justice, after which the matter was assigned to a new bench.
Following a fresh review, the new bench dismissed the rules on Thursday.
With the writ petitions dismissed, the NBR can now proceed with recovering the Tk 666 crore in income tax from Grameen Kalyan.
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