Finance Bill to be passed today
The government is set to cancel the mandatory requirement of taxpayer’s identification number for the electricity consumers and payment of an extra five per cent tax by saving certificate holders as the proposed Finance Bill 2019 is scheduled to be passed in the Jatiya Sangsad today.
Finance ministry officials said that the government was going to amend the proposals announced by finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on June 13 in parliament amid serious criticism from inside the government.
State minister for power and energy Nasrul Hamid has already issued a demi official letter to the finance minister for cancelling the TIN requirement for more than three crore power consumers while former agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury has demanded withdrawal of the extra 5 per cent tax on saving certificate holders in the interest of the fixed-income groups at a discussion in parliament.
Officials have said that the government is also going to relax the proposals for tax on reserve and retained earnings of publicly listed companies against the backdrop of observation by businessmen that retaining such proposals would discourage the flow of foreign direct investment.
The associations of the businessmen also demanded withdrawal of the proposed advance tax on import of capital machinery that according to them would make around 6,000 products costlier and put the commodities’ market in an adverse situation.
The government is likely to fulfil another demand from businessmen to the waive five per cent advance income tax on the import of rod and cement, raw materials considered as the two key ingredients for construction works.
Because of the proposed tax, businessmen calculated that an additional amount of more than Tk 800 would be required to purchase a tonne of cement equivalent to 20 bags while a tonne of iron rod would be at least Tk 10,000 costlier.
The businessmen concerned feared that the real estate sector would face the major brunt of the tax proposals, if put to effect, along with the implementation of the annual development programme worth Tk 2,02,721 crore in the new fiscal year beginning July 1.
The country’s first businessman-turned- finance minister, Mustafa Kamal, has been facing the most serious criticism for announcing the opportunity to legalise undisclosed money, raising the surcharge-free asset limit and keeping the tax-free income limit unchanged.
However, these proposals are likely to remain despite criticisms by economists and think-tanks as they were taken on political consideration.
Economists, including Mirza Azizul Islam, said that the proposal for keeping the tax-free income limit unchanged at Tk 2,50,000 would bring many low wage earners under the income tax net.
But raising the surcharge-free asset limit will benefit the affluent section of society by keeping them from paying additional taxes, he noted.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue, a leading local think-tank, has already called immoral the opportunity for legalisation of undisclosed money in the real estate sector and the industrial ventures in the economic zones.
The government, according to finance ministry officials, will also keep unchanged another proposal for giving two per cent cash incentive to encourage the inflow of remittances although such proposal might establish a bad precedence.
According to the officials, the presence of ailing finance minister Mustafa Kamal during the passage of the bill after the traditional budget discussion by prime minister Sheikh Hasina is still uncertain.
They said that they were mulling alternative steps, including completing the formalities over the Finance Bill, with recommendations for amending the budgetary proposals from the PM.
As finance minister Mustafa Kamal could not complete the budget speech in the JS due to his illness, the PM read out the remaining part of his speech.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
