The rate is up to Tk 15,000 for balance between Tk 1 crore and Tk 5 crore and to Tk 30,000 for accounts that record over Tk 5 crore balance. Accounts having up to Tk 1 lakh in balance – debit or credit, may be exempt from excise duty; which is now Tk 20,000 free from duty.
It appears that the government is putting hands on every source of revenue without reaching matching benefits to the people. One can’t part with his or her money to add to wishful spending of the government.
The number of accounts increased 7 percent in 2016 and the average deposit per account 6 percent to Tk 110,457, according to data from the Bangladesh Bank. In the first eight months of the outgoing fiscal year, Tk 1,480 crore was collected as excise duty, up 16 percent from a year earlier. Bank accounts are the largest contributor to excise duty. The last time the revenue authority raised the excise duty rates was in fiscal 2015-16: by 40-50 percent.
While in principle the amounts seem negligible one must take into account the overall picture. Many people from the middle or lower income groups exist whose total life savings would be 10 lakh or above. Taking Tk 3000 every year for no other reason than the fact that they have money in a bank account is ridiculous.
However, there would still be reason for a case to be made if the money was being spent for right cause in an efficient manner -which it is not being done. Any public sector investment, from flyovers to coal fired plants, are much more costlier than in countries like India and China – often by a region of 30-50 percent or more. It is not acceptable that such tax on bank accounts will be spent to maintain a luxurious government making expensive procurements or unnecessary tour programmes for bureaucrats. Public owned banks are facing massive capital shortfalls as loan defaults continues and in this situation the governments move to double excise duty on bank accounts seems to be utterly insane.
Public funds acquired by the government through taxes and duties are money acquired through blood and sweat by an individual. As such, the administration should not think of that as being their own money to spend as they see fit. The people have a right to know how their hard earned money is being spent. If it is not being spent properly – then they should know about it why. Simply finding ways to increase taxes to spend in ever more obscure and wasteful ways is not the right kind of tax system.
