Budget 2026-27: Products, services that could become cheaper

The budget proposes to reduce the source tax rate on 60 daily essentials, basic agricultural products and consumer goods

The government has proposed reductions in multiple types of taxes, such as import duties and VAT, on a range of products and services, including daily essentials.

Consequently, the prices of these goods and services are likely to fall.

The budget proposed to reduce the source tax rate from 5 percent, 2 percent, and 1 percent to 0.5 percent respectively on 60 daily essentials, basic agricultural products, and consumer goods, including paddy, rice, wheat, potatoes, livestock, poultry, fish, onions, garlic, ginger, salt, sugar, edible oil, and seeds.

The existing 5 percent advance tax on the import of kidney dialysis filters is to be fully waived.

Moreover, it has been proposed to grant a full exemption from the 7.5 percent advance tax applicable at the import stage for blood tubing sets used in haemodialysis for kidney patients.

A complete exemption from the 10 percent VAT at the supplier stage has been proposed for the supply of imported cardiac stents and ocular intraocular lenses.

As a result, the price of each cardiac stent will decrease by around Tk 20,000. The price of each ocular intraocular lens will decrease by around Tk 5,000.

The advance income tax rate on 15 imported items used by people with special needs may be lowered from 2 percent to 1 percent.

The source tax rate on the supply of gold and gold jewellery may be reduced from 5 percent to 0.5 percent.

However, instead of the 5 percent VAT on jewellery services, it has been proposed to set a specific VAT of Tk 2,500 per bhori.

The 5 percent source tax rate on the import of electric buses, trucks, and electric charging stations is to be completely withdrawn.

The existing 5 percent advance tax on the import of computer printers, portable automatic data processing machines, flash memory, and computer monitors is to be scaled back to 2 percent.

The advance tax rate on the import of 22 raw materials by local mobile phone manufacturing companies is to be cut from 5 percent and 2 percent to 1 percent.

The source tax deduction rate on power purchases from electricity producers is to be reduced from 4 percent to 3 percent.

The Tk 300 “SIM” tax on mobile phones has been withdrawn, but a 15 percent VAT must be paid on the price.

It has been proposed to withdraw all customs, regulatory and supplementary duties and VAT on the import of laptops, desktop computers, servers, printers, and computer monitors.

For SSD imports, it is proposed to withdraw all regulatory and supplementary duties and VAT, except for a 5 percent customs duty.

A proposal has been made to reduce the existing 10 percent customs duty to 5 percent and the 7.5 percent advance tax to zero percent on the import of Point of Sales or POS machines.

The finance minister also proposed to completely withdraw the existing 10 percent supplementary duty on the import of synthetic woven fabrics.

Import duties on five key raw materials used in the refractory cement industry, including ball clay, would be reduced to 5 percent.

A proposal has been made to impose an import duty of only 1 percent on linear alkyl benzene, one of the principal raw materials used in detergent manufacturing.

The existing 25 percent import duty on five raw materials required by domestic float glass manufacturers would be reduced to 15 percent, and the items would be included in a concessionary benefits notification.

Concessionary benefits have also been proposed for the import of two raw materials used in the tyre and tube manufacturing industry.

The existing 30 percent supplementary duty on imports of two raw materials used in the domestic skincare and beauty products industry would be reduced to 10 percent.

It is proposed to completely withdraw the 5 percent regulatory duty on the import of coffee extract, essence, and preparations in bulk as raw materials for the local coffee processing industry.

The 7.5 percent VAT applied at the trader level on all fertilisers used in agriculture would be fully exempted.

In addition, the 7.5 percent advance tax imposed at the import stage on all types of pesticides would be completely removed.

The finance minister has also proposed issuing a new notification setting import duty, regulatory duty, supplementary duty and advance tax rates at zero percent on imports of equipment and components used in the solar power sector.