Staff Reporter :
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) on Saturday said that the country’s consumers spend an additional Tk 1 lakh 14 thousand crore to buy goods.
It said, this is because of the imposition of higher import duty in the name of protecting the domestic industries.
CAB urged the government to keep the daily essentials out of the purview of the new VAT law for the sake of poor people.
The call was made at a press conference at the Sagar-Runi Auditorium of Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU). CAB said, we thought that the new Finance Minister will present the budget for fiscal year 2019-20 through scrutinizing budgetary policy with a view to lessening import duty gradually, but he has disappointed us.
In the written statement, CAB President Ghulam Rahman said the government has taken steps to implement the VAT Act- 2012 in the 2019-20 fiscal year. “There are provisions of realising 5, 7. 5, and 10 per cent VAT apart from unified 15 per cent one which will force consumers to pay extra tax,” he said.
Besides, he said, VAT has been proposed on some essential goods, including edible oil. “So, their prices will go up. We hope the government will keep daily essentials out of the purview of the VAT law after discussions in the Parliament.”
