Muhith lowers tax for listed banks

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has kept unchanged the existing tax rate for publicly traded companies at 25 percent and for non-publicly traded companies at 35 percent.

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But the good news is for listed banks and other financial institutions as the budget proposed to reduce the tax rate for them by 2.5 percentage points to 37.5 percent.

“We will lose a certain amount of tax revenue from such rationalisation of corporate tax rate; however, this will give a positive signal to our investors,” said Muhith.

With this proposed rate, the highest corporate tax rate will be mostly 40 percent, and the next highest rate will be 37.5 percent, except for tobacco manufacturers and non-listed mobile phone operators.

In the face of demand for reducing corporate tax further, Muhith said: “This is not correct. Corporate tax for publicly traded companies in Bangladesh is 25 percent, which is lower than in many countries in South Asia and very compatible with the global average of 24.29 percent.”