In the midst of growing popularity of Electric Vehicles (EVs), our government is considering bringing them under tax evaluation. The Government has been planning this for a while now but they were facing several technical problems in doing so.
As Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) faces problems imposing Advance Income Tax (AIT) on the EVs due to absence of required provision in the existing finance act, now they proposed a solution for it.
Government should make sure that they do not
fix high tax rate and promote the use of EVs by
keeping environment and sustainability in mind
In the proposed letter, BRTA proposed to fix AIT at Tk 25,000 for an electric car with 75kw motor capacity, Tk 50,000 for a car with motor capacity exceeding 75kw but not exceeding 100kw, Tk 75,000 for a car with motor capacity exceeding 100kw but not exceeding 125kw, Tk 125,000 for a car with motor capacity exceeding 125kw but not exceeding 150kw.
Currently there are many EVs in the country. But there is absence of comprehensive policies and guidelines. However, the future of the vehicle market is all about electric vehicles. Therefore if this proposed letter is implemented, the government will not lose a huge amount of tax revenue in the future which they are currently losing. Also certain guidelines are needed as well to make them legalise in the city streets.
All in all, we need to bring them under a policy as they are significant numbers of EVs entering our country. There have been global efforts to reduce CO2 emission and prevent global warming by discouraging use of fossil fuel driven vehicles. Therefore, the government should make sure that they do not fix high tax rates and promote the use of EVs by keeping the environment and sustainability in mind.
