bdnews24.com :
After backtracking on the uniform rate of value added tax, the Awami League is planning to introduce tow-tier VAT if it is re-elected in the next parliamentary election.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith has revealed the plan to implement the new VAT law with the two thresholds – one from 7 to 10 percent and the other 15 percent – instead of the uniform rate of 15 percent.
He spoke to bdnews24.com at Washington DC after meeting International Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director Mitsuhiro Furusawa on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings on Wednesday.
Muhith said the new biform rate of VAT would be effective from 2020.
The next general election is slated between December 2018 and January 2019.
The finance minister proposed the 15 percent uniform VAT rate in the budget for 2017-18 fiscal year, but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina suspended it for two more years.
The government eventually kept the existing multiple rates.
Following IMF recommendation, the government passed the Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act in 2012 with the 15 percent uniform VAT rate after years of discussions.
The new law had been scheduled to be effective from July 2016, but the government deferred it by a year following protests by the businesses. The existing package VAT rates were increased instead. Quoting the prime minister, Muhith told bdnews24.com: “It’s not a good time to implement the 15 percent uniform VAT rate.”
After backtracking on the uniform rate of value added tax, the Awami League is planning to introduce tow-tier VAT if it is re-elected in the next parliamentary election.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith has revealed the plan to implement the new VAT law with the two thresholds – one from 7 to 10 percent and the other 15 percent – instead of the uniform rate of 15 percent.
He spoke to bdnews24.com at Washington DC after meeting International Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director Mitsuhiro Furusawa on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings on Wednesday.
Muhith said the new biform rate of VAT would be effective from 2020.
The next general election is slated between December 2018 and January 2019.
The finance minister proposed the 15 percent uniform VAT rate in the budget for 2017-18 fiscal year, but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina suspended it for two more years.
The government eventually kept the existing multiple rates.
Following IMF recommendation, the government passed the Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act in 2012 with the 15 percent uniform VAT rate after years of discussions.
The new law had been scheduled to be effective from July 2016, but the government deferred it by a year following protests by the businesses. The existing package VAT rates were increased instead. Quoting the prime minister, Muhith told bdnews24.com: “It’s not a good time to implement the 15 percent uniform VAT rate.”
