National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan today said that the government is working on to establish such a tax structure which will be logically discrimination free and thus will help to grow businesses.
“We’ve to get rid of the culture of tax exemption, it causes misuses and creates holes in the system,” he said while speaking at a pre-budget meeting held at the conference room of the Revenue Building in the capital’s Agargaon area, reports BSS.
He said that the present Value Added Tax (VAT) system of the country is not near the actual spirit of the VAT system.
Rahman mentioned that currently the VAT rates are 5 percent, 7.5 percent, 10 percent and 15 percent which is affecting the business community.
“The business people invited this loss for themselves, now they are feeling the pain,” he said.
He also said that if the business people agreed, then the NBR will reduce the VAT rate, but it should be a single digit rate.
The NBR chairman said that as the VAT imposes in various levels, the consumer who buys products can feel the pinch of the higher cost.
“That means, it (VAT) has connection with the prices of the products,” he added.
Rahman also said that if the government could implement the VAT as per its spirit, then the inflation rate might not be much higher.
The general point-to-point inflation rate in Bangladesh declined further in February reaching 9.32%, down from 9.94% in January this year.
According to the latest data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the decline in inflation was mainly driven by a fall in food prices. In February, the point-to-point food inflation declined to 9.24%, down from 10.72% in January, the BBS data showed.
The NBR chairman said that there should be more discipline in VAT. “The revenue of the country should come more from VAT and income tax,” he added.
Abdur Rahman Khan said that if the total business ecosystem embraces VAT, then none will be outside of the VAT net.
“Besides, the VAT collection will also be increased,” he said.
The NBR chairman said that at the existing VAT payers are experiencing more and more load while others who do not bother to be enlisted yet are having no problem at all.
“We have to get out from this discrimination,” he added.
MB
