Two ruling Awami League lawmakers and a lawmaker from Jatiya Party on Saturday in Jatiya Sangsad criticised the government for keeping provisions for legalising undisclosed money in the proposed budget for the financial year 2024-25.
Participating in general discussion on the proposed budget, Pran Gopal Datta from Cumilla-7, Zahid Maleque from Manikganj-1 and a reserved seat lawmaker from JP Nurun Nahar Begum said that keeping the provision of legalising undisclosed money would create reluctance among tax payers to pay taxes as there was an option to whiten black money through taxes.
鈥楢s a taxpayer, I have to pay more than 30 per cent tax if I have Tk 30 lakh. But the person who did not show the money past year is legalising that undisclosed income by paying a 15 per cent tax. This will make the taxpayers reluctant to pay taxes,鈥� Pran Gopal explained.
He said, 鈥榃e always talk about black and white money. But informal grey money [related to tax evasion] is the informal economy that is not taxed and cannot be controlled in any position.鈥�
He said that the finance minister did not say anything about that grey money in his budget speech.
鈥楪rey money is worse than undisclosed income. Money laundering cannot be stopped unless it is curtailed,鈥� Pran Gopal said.
Zahid Maleque, also a former health minister, while participating in the budget discussions said that they didn鈥檛 want the provision of whitening the black money in the proposed budget.
鈥榃e will have to curb corruption and rate of tax to reduce black money,鈥� he added.
He said that no low-income people or industrialists but 鈥榳hite-collar people鈥� were creating 鈥榖lack money鈥�.
JP lawmaker Nurun Nahar Begum said that with the provision of whitening the black money, many criminals would be able to whiten black money in the country besides laundering money outside the country.
Pran Gopal, also a noted physician, said that he feared that the new generation would become disabled due to excessive use of mobile phones.
He suggested whether the government can disable mobile towers in remote rural areas by creating an app from 10:00pm to 6:00am in the morning.
鈥楶eople are complaining that they are suffering from hearing loss and they can鈥檛 focus on studying. So something should be invented so that our young generation can stay away from this technology from 10:00pm to 6:00am,鈥� he added.