Finance Minister AMA Muhith has hinted at corporate tax cuts in the next budget. He said this while speaking as the chief guest at a pre-budget discussion organized by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) on 12 May.
Finance Minister stated that government is planning double slab of VAT system from FY 2019-20 instead of 15% flat VAT rate. He also said that government is considering slashing corporate tax rate as it is encouraging that the young generation of the country is showing interests in paying income tax recently.
Former Adviser to the Caretaker Government, A.B. Mirza Md. Azizul Islam said, “For the economic prosperity, development of infrastructure like power, energy, port, rail etc. are some crucial areas.”
Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur said, “Our tax-GDP ratio has not increased over the past seven years and it quite low in South Asian countries. He stated that taxation system in our country needs to be automated.”
Economist and Managing Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers Mamun Rashid said that at present Bangladesh spends 2% of its GDP in infrastructure sector which needs to accelerate to 10%.
Moderator of the program and Editor of Daily Samakal Golam Sarwar, Fellow of CPD Professor Dr. Mustafizur Rahman, Chairman of NBR Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, Former President of DCCI Hossain Khaled, and Research Director of CPD Dr. Khondoker Golam Moazzem were also present at the roundtable discussion.
