Anisul Islam Noor :
Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL) requested for Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) from the government to accommodate financial benefits beyond regular practices, sources said.
In a letter, the BIFPCL asked the power division secretary to request the National Board of Revenue to issue a specific SRO in the name of BIFPCL so that the financial benefits could be availed by the company, vendors and expatriate employee of the company.
The benefits include exemption of company and its contractors from paying custom duties, VAT and other local taxes and duties, according to a letter sent to power division from BIFPCL.
The foreign investors are also exempted from the
payment of capital gain tax and the expatriate employees of the company are also exempted from tax or withholding tax, the letter said.
Foreign lenders shall not be subjected to taxation and the company shall be exempted from paying of taxes on the sale of electricity to the power board.
BIFPCL Managing Director VS Tamraker told The New Nation that the company was looking for the special SRO so that it could deal with all the financial issues.
BIFPCL is implementing a 1,320MW imported coal-fired power project at Rampal in Bagerhat near the Sundarbans. The project has already drawn severe criticism from environment activists as they said that the plant would destroy the world’s largest mangrove forest.
The implementation agreement of the project signed on April 20, 2013 included nine different fiscal benefits related to taxes and duties.
