Friday | 10 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Friday | 10 January 2025 | Epaper

Tax exemptions to be cut drastically at IMF urging: NBR chief

Published : Friday, 6 December, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 237
Bangladesh must meet strict conditions if it wants to get budget support from various partner organisations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and, as a result, the current tax exemptions in industry and trade will be reduced 'drastically', according to National Board of Revenue Chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan.

"We have a big challenge ahead of us, we have to increase our revenue," he said. "We have to raise the country's income. We have had many deficit budgets. We have had to take out many loans. These have now become a burden."

Mentioning that the interim government is seeking 'budget support' from other partners, including the IMF, he said: "They [the representatives] said, you [the NBR] give tax exemptions in 300,000 to 350,000 instances each year. These have to be reduced."

The comments from the NBR chief came as he inaugurated the Walton-organised industrial fair 'ATS Expo-2024' on Thursday.

"We have given these [tax exemptions] or you [Walton] could not have come here. We have given them to attract FDI [foreign direct investment]. To increase the country's investment. Now tax expenditure [exemptions] must be reduced drastically."

He also urged all taxpayers to be "ready to pay taxes". He also noted that all initiatives will be taken to stop the harassment of taxpayers.

Stating that a national single window is being set up, Khan added that all business registration certificates will be available from the same place from March 2025.

The NBR chief said, "We will also bring corporate tax returns online from next year, so you should not have to suffer the bitterness involved in paying taxes again."

The IMF has introduced stricter conditions for Bangladesh, demanding a 0.6 percent increase in the tax-to-GDP ratio for the current fiscal year before the disbursement of the fourth loan tranche.

This comes after the NBR failed to meet its tax collection goals for the previous fiscal year.

In a meeting with an IMF delegation on Wednesday, the NBR sought a reduction in the tax target, requesting a 0.4 percent increase instead of the initially set figure.

The IMF agreed to the proposal, but since Bangladesh's revenue collection body failed to meet the targets for FY 2023-24, it has added an additional 0.2 percent to the tax target for FY 2024-25.

"There is no difference in the benefits for manufacturers and assemblers"

SM Mahbubul Alam, managing director of Walton Hi-Tech Industries PLC, said: "There is still no legal difference between manufacturers and assemblers in Bangladesh. There is no difference in tax exemption facilities for them either."

"America is adopting protectionist measures for its domestic companies and markets, we are not able to do that," he said.
He asked the NBR for cooperation on the matter.    —bdnews24.com 



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