Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) President Ashraf Ahmed said complicated tax management system hinders CMSMEs growth and the tax structure should be business friendly and easy to handle.
He said this during the courtesy call with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan at his NBR head office at Agargaon on Tuesday, says a press release.
DCCI Senior Vice President Malik Talha Ismail Bari and Vice President Md. Junaed Ibna Ali, Members of NBR Md. Masud Sadiq, AKM Badiul Alam and G M Abdul Kalam Kaikobad were also present on the occasion.
Ashraf Ahmed said, as per existing law, if business losses of one enterprise cannot be adjusted with income of other sources the burden of additional tax is being imposed on the businessmen. He therefore recommends the reinstatement of similar provision of Section 37 of the Income Tax Ordinance 1984.
The DCCI president also requested for income tax system to be brought under the automated system with the aim of simplifying tax payment and all tax related matters.
If the tax at source is not possible to be adjusted with the installment of advance income tax at this moment, the provision may be issued to provide an opportunity to carry forward the tax at source deducted from the payment of goods and services provided by the MSME to the next tax year.
Currently there is a provision of fine up to 400percent if the HS code is incorrect even if the product description is correct. For this businesses often face harassment.
If the product's description or HS code is correct there should have been an opportunity to amend and withdraw the declaration of goods filed at the assessment stage by amending Section 86 (1) of the Customs Act 2023, he said.
NBR Chairman Md. Abdur Rahman Khan said only 5 percent of our total populations pay tax, whereas in India the rate is 23percent and in existing reality we have no option to expand the tax net.
The NBR Chairman further said the maximum revenue comes from existing tax payers and a large section of the society is out of the tax net, thereby increasing the pressure on the existing tax payers.
If the non-tax payers remain out of the net year after year, the existing tax payers will be discouraged from paying tax, so the NBR will work on priority basis to expand the tax net in the next six months, he said.
He further said due to multiple tax layers at various stages, effective tax rate especially of corporate tax sometimes increases, but the issue will be considered seriously by the NBR.
