National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem said, the NBR would review the budget proposals of the businesses community to protect local manufacturers of home appliances and tax benefit for companies working for transgender.
“To check tax evasion by a quarter, we have to take some protective measures which may hurt micro and small-scale industries,” he said while speaking at a pre-budget meeting with leaders of trade bodies at the NBR office on Wednesday.
He said it has been found that tax benefit meant for small and medium industries are enjoyed by large companies.
“We came to know about abuse of the existing tax benefit. Traders are enjoying the facility instead of small-scale local industries,” said the NBR chairman, who chaired the meeting.
DCCI president Rizwan Rahman placed a set of proposals on 20 sectors and sought NBR's steps to cut tax in the national budget for fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22) to help grow businesses affected by Covid-19. Leaders of Bangladesh Chambers of Industries (BCI), Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) and leaders of different district level trade bodies of Dhaka division, took part in the pre-budget discussion.
Bangladesh Chambers of Industries (BCI) has demanded fiscal support for the micro and small-scale industries along with light engineering and agro-processing ones to diversify country’s export basket.
The chamber leaders sought at least five-year tax holiday facility for young entrepreneurs, micro and small-scale industries.
In a pre-budget meeting on Wednesday, BCI President Anwarul-Alam Chowdhury (Pervez) said world market size of light engineering is US$ 7.0 trillion whereas it is $820 billion for readymade garments industries.
The BCI leaders placed their proposals to the NBR for the Fiscal Year 2021-22.
The BCI president demanded tax benefit for investment in technical and vocational training, remuneration of foreign technical experts, eco-friendly industries and separate budget allocation for private sector health care services.
Pervez proposed to bring down the corporate tax rates to 20 to 25 per cent in the upcoming FY.
He said the tax officials should accept if income of taxpayers decreases in a year compared to that of the corresponding year.
For checking under and over invoicing, the customs should introduce value-based assessment system and slab of the value should be flexible.
Vice president of the BCI Priti Chakrabarti demanded a clear guideline for the private sector health care service providers in the next budget.
BCI members proposed to cut down the time of document preservation by businesses for reopening tax files, offer tax benefit for local home appliances manufacturers, offer tax benefit for the businesses working for transgender.
BCI members proposed to offer tax benefit for the companies if they employ 5.0 per cent of their workforce from physically challenged or transgender.
They have sought upward revision of annual turnover limit of industries for enjoying reduced rate of VAT to Tk 100 million from Tk 30 million, cut turnover tax rate by one percentage point, offer tax benefit for the industries that are unable to obtain VAT rebate in inputs.
The chamber leaders have proposed upward revision of tax-free limit for individual taxpayers to Tk 4,00,000 in the upcoming budget.
