Staff Reporter :
Online shopping is getting costlier soon for the proposed value added tax (VAT) imposed on it in the National Budget for the fiscal 2019-20.
Customers will have to pay 7.5 percent Value Added Tax for online shopping, which is growing popularity across the country, according to the budget documents.
Online shopping received a five per cent VAT imposition in the last fiscal year’s budget, but later it was dropped citing reasons that it was a printing mistake.
Industry insiders said last year VAT was exempted through a clearer definition, but this time it is included through definition in the documents.
The 7.5 per cent VAT is too much for this emerging e-Commerce sector, said Asif Ahnaf, President of e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB).
“I think online sales should not be included in Virtual Business and there should be a VAT exemption in this sector until 2024,” he said.
AKM Fahim Mashroor, founder of ajkerdeal.com, one of the leading local e-Commerce ventures, said this move would go against the digitalisation of the country.
Currently, there are about one thousand e-Commerce shops in the country and their annual turnover is about Tk 2,000 crore. Numbers are growing every day.
Online shopping is getting costlier soon for the proposed value added tax (VAT) imposed on it in the National Budget for the fiscal 2019-20.
Customers will have to pay 7.5 percent Value Added Tax for online shopping, which is growing popularity across the country, according to the budget documents.
Online shopping received a five per cent VAT imposition in the last fiscal year’s budget, but later it was dropped citing reasons that it was a printing mistake.
Industry insiders said last year VAT was exempted through a clearer definition, but this time it is included through definition in the documents.
The 7.5 per cent VAT is too much for this emerging e-Commerce sector, said Asif Ahnaf, President of e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB).
“I think online sales should not be included in Virtual Business and there should be a VAT exemption in this sector until 2024,” he said.
AKM Fahim Mashroor, founder of ajkerdeal.com, one of the leading local e-Commerce ventures, said this move would go against the digitalisation of the country.
Currently, there are about one thousand e-Commerce shops in the country and their annual turnover is about Tk 2,000 crore. Numbers are growing every day.
