Home
+
Published : 01 Jun 2023, 11:44 PM
The apex trade organisation in Bangladesh thinks the government’s plan to withdraw supplementary and regulatory duties on imported goods in the new fiscal year will negatively impact local industries.
Md. Jashim Uddin, the president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said the removal of SD on 234 products and RD on 191 of them was proposed in the budget for the next financial year starting in July.
“I think this needs to be looked into because the local industries will suffer if that happens. It may have been done with the LDC graduation roadmap in mind,” he said.
Jashim Uddin said local industries needed to be prioritised, taking into account the dollar crisis.
The business leaders called for the government to focus on items substituting imported goods. “The more we can produce items substituting import goods, the less pressure there will be on imports.”
“We don’t really know whether import substitute items were prioritised. But it will help alleviate the dollar crisis down the line,” Jashim Uddin said. Long-term policies were required for raw materials and machinery, he added.
The FBCCI will analyse the presented budget and deliver a detailed reaction on Saturday.
Jashim Uddin thinks the government could meet the tax collection target.
“I think the prime minister and the finance minister announced the budget with eyes on LDC graduation and the 2041 target. Challenges do exist and collecting taxes might be one of them.”
“If we fail to meet budget collection targets, expenditure becomes much more difficult. And we always say that spending must not be constrained, it should be expansive,” he said.
A HYBRID BUDGET: DCCI
The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the budget was a hybrid as it focuses on both business and the economy.
Sameer Sattar, the president of the chamber, said: “We’re going through a challenge and it’s not possible for the government to take care of it by itself.”
The budget raised the non-taxable income ceiling by Tk 50,000 to Tk 350,000, but the DCCI thinks the threshold should have been pushed higher to Tk 500,000, taking surging inflation into account.
Sameer said the VAT turnover limit needed to be raised while suggesting the automation of returns and audit processes. The National Board of Revenue also needs to have stronger partnerships with businesses to achieve revenue collection targets.
“The budget was announced keeping inflation control, boosting revenue, reducing dependency on imports and recovery of the private sector in sight. I hope the plan will play a crucial role in combating global crises and recovery of the private sector.”
Sameer applauded the move to exact long-awaited implementation of the Income Tax Act. Although it raises the non-taxable income ceiling, TIN holders whose earnings fall below the taxable income threshold will have to count Tk 2,000 to receive a range of government services, he said.
Ali Ahmed, a former member of NBR, said in a television interview that the government should focus on places that have money and can pay taxes instead of such ‘experimentation’.
“Can we count on those places? Does the government have that political goodwill with this being the election budget?”
Drawing from his experience during his time at the NBR, he underlined that many people are afraid of filling up income tax forms. “How many people, who don’t know how to read or write or those who can do it only a bit, can do it?”
“The rich among us give something to the government as intermediaries. If every person is required to file tax returns, that will never be a reality and we may hear that in the next budget.”
REHAB FEARS CONDO PRICES MAY GO UP
In an immediate reaction, the Real Estate & Housing Association of Bangladesh, the largest group of real estate developers, urged the government to reconsider some of the additional taxes levied on land registration and house-building materials, which may, in turn, take the apartment prices out of the reach of people in the middle-income bracket.
REHAB President Alamgir Shamsul Alamin said potential buyers would be discouraged as apartment prices will soar with the additional tax proposed at source for land registration, and house building materials like lifts, ceramics, glass, switch-sockets, cables and kitchenware.
“Real estate developers will have to bear the brunt of the excess prices of the materials for installation in the condominiums. We won’t have any other options but to increase the apartment selling prices to make a bare minimum profit, which will, in turn, discourage potential buyers,” he said.
In his budget speech on Thursday, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed to increase the land registration tax at source for plots within and outside the jurisdiction of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha and Chattogram Development Authority.
