Individual income tax rate to remain unchanged in FY23

Finance Minister Mustafa Kamal is planning to keep the individual tax rate unchanged for a third straight year in the proposed national budget for the fiscal year 2022-23.

Despite calls from various quarters to increase the tax-free income limit for individuals in the wake of the pandemic and mounting inflation, the threshold has been left unchanged at Tk 300,000 per annum in the Tk 6.78 trillion budget presented on Thursday.

However, the ceiling of tax-free income has been raised by Tk 50,000 to Tk 350,000 for members of the transgender community to facilitate their social inclusion, according to Kamal.

"Since taking charge in 2009, the present government has constantly been pursuing a taxpayer, business and investment-friendly policy in collecting taxes to establish a strong tax culture in the country," said Kamal.

"The essence of this policy is to gradually ease the tax burden by increasing investment and tax-to-GDP ratio in the economy, and also by motivating the taxpayers for better tax-compliance."