The industrialists in the leather goods and ceramic sectors, real estate businesses and reconditioned car traders demanded various tax cuts and duty benefits in the upcoming national budget for fiscal year 2025-26.
They put the demands while discussing at a pre-budget discussion at the National Board of Revenue office in the capital on Tuesday.
In the discussion, Abdul Haque, president of the Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicles Importers and Dealers Association urged the government to withdraw a 20 per cent supplementary duty for importing 10-15 seater microbuses.
They also said that a 30 per cent supplementary duty was imposed on the import of microbuses in FY14, which has greatly decreased the import of this widely used microbus.
Besides BARVIDA, the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Ceramic Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the Bangladesh Leather Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association, and the Bangladesh Tanners Association also presented their budget proposals.聽聽聽
BARVIDA president said that microbuses are versatile vehicles for small, medium, and large industry officials and workers鈥� transportation, student transportation, and the tourism industry.
However, the imposition of supplementary duty has created obstacles in establishing beautiful, modern public transport.聽
Considering the safe transportation of the public,聽 they proposed reducing the supplementary duty rate on the import of microbuses to discourage the use of accident-prone vehicles like Nasimon and Laguna.
In their budget proposal, REHAB president Md Wahiduzzaman proposed reducing gain tax to 4 per cent from 8 per cent, stamp tax to 1 per cent from 1.5 per cent, local government fee to 1 per cent from 3 per cent, and a unified VAT of 2 per cent from the existing 2 per cent for apartments up to 1600 square feet and 4.5 per cent for apartments more than 1600 square feet.
He also urged increasing the cash transaction limit to Tk聽1 crore instead of Tk聽36 lakh. The REHAB also urged the government to reduce TDS to zero for Tk聽1-15 lakh and 2 per cent for above Tk聽15 lakh from the existing 3 per cent for up to Tk聽50 lakh, 5 per cent for Tk聽50 lakh-Tk聽2 crore, and 7 per cent for more than Tk聽2 crore.
To encourage urbanisation, they urged a five-year tax holiday in the metropolitan and cantonment areas and a 10-year tax holiday out of the municipality area.
At their budget proposal, Moynul Islam, president of the BCMEA, urged the government to abolish a 15 per cent supplementary duty on domestic tile production and a 10 per cent supplementary duty on domestic sanitary products production.
He said that ceramic tiles and sanitary products are no longer luxurious goods; rather, they have become essentials for building houses and ensuring hygiene.
They also presented proposals for reducing duties on raw material imports and creating separate HS codes.
LFMEAB proposed to import raw materials supplied by respected buyers free of cost, like the readymade garment sector.
They also urged increasing the cash incentive to 4 per cent from the existing 2 per cent for the export of non-leather footwear and bags.
They also urged to provide a waiver of 10 per cent of the source at tax on export cash subsidy.
Bangladesh Tanners Association urged exempting raw hides from source at tax considering them agro products. They also urged reducing VAT to 7.5 per cent from the existing 15 per cent on importing chemicals for rawhide processing.
Abdur Rahman Khan, chairman of the NBR, said that they always make decisions after discussing them with the stakeholders for the country鈥簊 well-being.
鈥楤angladesh will graduate from the LDC status, so we must collect tax. In this regard, he added that we need the cooperation of the businesses.
He also said that 65 per cent of TIN holders failed to file their tax returns on time and warned them to take strict measures to ensure compliance.
鈥榃e have already instructed our tax offices to serve notices to non-filers, collect bank and other relevant information, and search bank accounts,鈥� he added.
He also hinted at a possible reduction in tax rates for land and apartment transfers in the next budget.
