DHAKA: The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) has demanded a 5% cut in corporate tax in order to reach the 8% GDP growth required to gain middle income country status.
The trade body also urged the government to launch a pilot survey to identify taxable people so the tax net can be expanded in both rural and urban areas to increase government revenues. DCCI President Abul Kasem Khan submitted the budget recommendations for fiscal year 2018-19 to National Board of Revenue (NB) Chairman, Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, at a pre-budget meeting on Tuesday.
“Bangladesh has to maintain its human index, per capita income, and reduce economic vulnerability to improve its economic stability as a developing country. The GDP growth has to increase to 8% to graduate into a middle income country,” Abul Kasem Khan said in the budget proposal.
The chamber also asked the government to introduce tax exemptions on purchases of electronics such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets up to Tk25,000 to promote the vision of a Digital Bangladesh.
It also called for tax exemptions on children’s education up to Tk1.2 lakh.
In response to the DCCI proposal, NBR Chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the government was thinking about how to increase revenues while reducing taxes, as a significant number of people had demanded cuts on the corporate tax.
Regarding Value Added Tax (VAT), Mosharraf said there was a tendency to evade VAT and it needed to be collected properly so people become accustomed to the system.
