FICCI for corporate tax cut to boost FDI

Putting forth budgetary proposals at a pre-budget meeting with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in Dhaka recently, the Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) reportedly urged the Bangladesh Government to reduce corporate tax in the next financial year’s budget, in order to attract more foreign investments in Bangladesh.

Also Read – 10% corporate tax for RMG industry in the offing, says Tofail Ahmed

Led by its president Rupali Chowdhury, a FICCI delegation that called upon the NBR, requested the Government to reduce corporate tax (by 10-15 per cent) for non-listed companies to minimise the gap between the marginal tax rate and the effective tax rate.

“The corporate tax rate is very high compared to other countries, including India where the rate is 25 per cent,” underlined Chowdhury, who went on to urge the NBR to consider FICCI’s overall budget proposals for the sake of investment in the country, saying that no new investment was made in the country over the last two to three years, except some expansions.

At present, the corporate tax rate for the non-listed firms is 35 per cent in Bangladesh. The effective tax rate becomes 45 per cent to 50 per cent for the companies because of high disallowances on royalty fee and excess perquisites, the FICCI delegation argued.

Also Read – Bangladesh registers over 30% rise in FDI in July-Jan period

The FICCI delegation also proposed an increase in tax-free income ceiling for individual to Tk. 3 lakh from the existing Tk. 2.5 lakh. According to the FICCI team, the current tax free income ceiling for individual taxpayers was very low considering the high inflation, price hike and worldwide recession, as such it wanted the threshold to be increased to improve disposable income and support lower income groups.

Taking part in the meeting, representative of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IBCCI) A K Azad Chowdhury requested the NBR to “break the unholy alliance of corrupt taxmen and businessmen to maximise revenue collection”.