Bangladesh Premier League: ‘25% tax deduction was part of contract’

BPL officials meet board; explain deductions from payments.

KARACHI: The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) called in franchise officials of its Twenty20 league yesterday in order to resolve the pending non-payment issue as it faces a legal action from the players’ association, FICA.

Duronto Rajshahi Chairman Mushfiqur Rehman Mohan confirmed that the meeting took place yesterday and while half the franchises have cleared their dues, the problem has come up due to the rest finding it difficult to arrange huge sums in such a short time. “The board wants to ensure that these problems don’t surface again which is why the meeting took place,” Mohan told The Express Tribune before replying to the Pakistani players’ concerns after they were paid only 75% of the promised amount.

“They’ve been paid 75% because the other 25% is the tax that has been deducted for foreign players. We’ll send the receipts of the tax payment to clear any doubts in the players’ minds.

“We want to take the Bangladesh Premier League to new heights in the next edition and I promise these problems will not happen.”

Meanwhile, the Pakistani players who took part in the event’s inaugural edition have confirmed that no such tax clause was present in their contracts. “They’ve deducted 25% and called it tax while the amount that was to be deducted was not mentioned in the contracts,” said a player.

“I’ve been asking them to send me the receipt as proof because I can’t believe the tax rate will be this high. The organisers are acting in an immature manner that could harm their reputation and the participation of the players in the future.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2012.