VAT appeal in Chattogram

Under the VAT and SD Act 2012 a business that disagrees with a decision or order of a VAT officer — a demand for unpaid VAT, a disallowed input tax credit, a rejected price declaration, a penalty or a refund refusal — can ask a higher authority to look at it again. The appeal is not a fresh audit: it asks whether the order was right on the facts and the law that were before the officer.

The Chattogram appeals we see most come from importers whose input tax on imports was disallowed for a paperwork gap, manufacturers whose Mushak 4.3 price declaration was not accepted, service providers assessed on VDS that their buyers did not deduct, and traders who were treated as VAT-registered when they believed they were under turnover tax.

Before filing, it is worth asking whether an appeal is the right tool at all. Some demands rest on a simple mismatch — an invoice entered in the wrong month, a Mushak 6.6 certificate that never reached the circle, an import counted twice. Where the papers show that clearly, we raise it with the circle first and keep the appeal ready in case the time limit is close. Where the dispute is about how the law applies — whether a supply is exempt, which rate applies, whether a price declaration was reasonable — the appeal is the place to argue it, and the grounds need to say so plainly.

Orders made by the Customs, Excise & VAT Commissionerate, Chattogram, are appealed first to the Customs, Excise & VAT Appeal Commissionerate, Chattogram, before the Commissioner (Appeals). If that appeal fails, the second appeal goes to the Customs, Excise and VAT Appellate Tribunal (CEVT), which sits in Dhaka. We handle both stages; the Tribunal hearing means a trip to Dhaka for our practitioner, not for you.

The appeal is built on the papers the officer had, plus what answers the order:

Preparation takes days, not weeks, if the registers are in order. The hearing dates are set by the Appeal Commissionerate and the Tribunal, so we cannot promise a decision date; we tell you what to expect once the appeal is admitted.

The VAT and SD Act 2012 sets a time limit for each appeal, counted from the date you receive the order, and requires part of the disputed amount to be deposited before the appeal is heard. Both are short and strict. If the time passes, the order stands and the VAT office can move to recover the demand. Send us the order on the day it arrives; we confirm the exact last date and deposit for your order against the Act before anything else.

The deposit is paid to the government in your name and counts towards the VAT finally found due. Our fee depends on the amount in dispute, the number of periods and whether the case goes to the Tribunal in Dhaka; we fix it in writing for each stage before we file.