Awami League MP Abdul Mannan on Monday asked Finance Minister AMA Muhith not to insist on imposing additional excise duty on bank accounts in the national budget for fiscal year 2017-18.
“There’s nothing to insist on here… Awami League does politics for people. Prime Minister is working prioritising people’s desires. People don’t want this excise duty,” he said quoting the Finance Minister as saying that the excise duty will not be withdrawn.
Participating in the general discussion on the proposed national budget for 2017-18 fiscal year in the House, Abdul Mannan demanded the withdrawal of the excise duty as per the public desire.
The proposed national budget for 2017-18 fiscal year slapped Tk 800 excise on bank accounts with balance between Tk 1 lakh and Tk 10 lakh at any time of a year.
He said the move to impose the additional excise duty on bank accounts is now widely criticised inside and outside parliament. Many people go to bank to know what amount of money will be deducted from their deposits. “So, the additional excise duty should be withdrawn to remove suspicion among the depositors.”
Joining the discussion, AL MP Sanjida Khanam demanded an increase in tobacco tax further considering tobacco effect to the public health. She asked the Finance Minister to withdraw VAT from e-commerce and meditation.
Jatiya Party MP Mohammad Abdul Munim Chowdhury said it is a usual matter that the budget size will extended on regular basis.
“But, the problem is that we never implement the budget fully. Some 90-95 percent of budget is implemented in papers, but in reality the figure is very lower,” he added.
The opposition MP said even 50 percent of budget cannot be implemented in the first 9-10 months of any fiscal year. But 40-45 percent of budget is implemented hurriedly in only last 2-3 months. “During the last two-three months, there had been massive lootings in the name of budget implementation,” he added.
Munim Chowhdury asked the Finance Minister to remove supplementary duty on child foods.
Besides, AL MP Dr AFM Ruhal Haque, Gazi MM Amjad Hossain, Captain AB Tajul Islam (Retd), AKMA Awal, Shirin Nayeem and Selina Jahan Lita, and Workers Party MP Md Yeasin Ali, among others, joined the general discussion on the proposed budget.
