Al Amin :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) concluded pre-budget discussions for the upcoming fiscal year (2022-23) bagging various proposals for bolstering domestic industries.
The NBR started the pre-budget discussion with the stockholders on February 6 and ended it through the discussion with the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) in Dhaka on Tuesday.
It is first time, the NBR held the budget discussions at divisional cities across the country.
In the discussions, most of the participated trade bodies and business think tanks suggested the NBR taking the pandemic-induced economy into consideration to prepare the upcoming budget.
They proposed for formation trade-facilitation department policy responsibilities like rationalization of the rates of customs duties, providing incentive supports for export- oriented sectors, risk management and bringing down the ratio of direct and indirect tax to 65:35 from the existing 35:65.
Bolstering the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system, creating a feel-good fiscal-policy regime for exporting sectors, facilitating growth of local industry were also suggested.
Besides, reduction of corporate tax and continuation of incentives for different sectors in the upcoming budget were proposed in the meets.
FBCCI President Md Jasim Uddin said the upcoming budget will be very critical because of the severe fallouts induced by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia -Ukraine war, which will have a bad impact on the global supply chain and domestic economy.
So, the government should continue the reduction of corporate tax also in the next fiscal year, he said.
He demanded for reduction of VAT on various goods and services, increase of tax net, reduction of corporate tax rate, increase of capacity of all ports, special allocation for women entrepreneurs considering the war situation.
For micro-cottage industry with below Tk 150 million annual turnover, he sought tax holiday for up to eight tax years, special turnover-tax rate at 1.0 per cent and lowest tax on import of raw materials and other machinery.
The FBCCI president also sought an extended bonded-warehouse facility for other industries, including small and medium industries, women entrepreneurs and digital traders.
On income tax, he proposed taxing only income by scrapping the existing provision of levying it on transactions, sales or receipts.
Among the other proposals, he demanded for withdrawal of advance tax except for salary payments, fees, interest and dividend, avoiding double taxation, imposing tax on the basis of final taxable net income or accounting profit and curbing discretionary power to determine allowable expenditure.
For the taxpayers not having capacity to maintain accounts as per income-tax law, a committee comprising NBR and listed accountants could be formed to assist them through sector-wise audit for determination of gross profit.
He also demanded waiver of VAT and supplementary duty for low-income and-poor people on their daily consumable goods such as transportation of common goods, essential products, waste management, recycling, servicing sector etc.
Addressing the meeting, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the upcoming budget would be a win-win one as the government will not only collect the revenue but also give facilities to the business considering the time.
