FBCCI President Md. Jashim Uddin on Saturday advocated abolishing the supplementary duty on locally produced goods for the sake of promoting domestic industry. He made the remark at the first meeting of the FBCCI's standing committee on Budget, Import Duty, Income Tax, VAT and other taxes held at the FBCCI office. During the meeting, Md. Jashim Uddin said that after the LDC graduation, the government cannot protect the domestic industry as it is now. Therefore, initiatives should be taken to strengthen the local industry through tax and duty exemption till 2026. The FBCCI president urged the government not to impose any supplementary duty on domestically produced products in the next fiscal budget. Also read: FBCCI to establish UAE -Bangladesh Joint Council in Dubai At the same time, the President said, there has been a positive growth in exports despite the Covid situation. However, he said that the export earnings have increased mainly due to increase in prices of raw materials in the world market and the profits of the traders did not increase. He urged not to impose any new tax in the next budget. The FBCCI chief demanded an assessment of whether the various automation projects undertaken by the government in revenue management are being implemented properly. Md. Farid Uddin, panel advisor of FBCCI and a former member of the NBR, said that due to various amendments in 2019, the VAT Act-2012 has now become the Sales Tax Act. He recommended a fundamental reform of the law. He urged the Board of Revenue to remain accountable to the business community so that businessmen are not harassed by the tax officials. Also read: FBCCI President urges expatriate Bangladeshi businessmen to invest in economic zones At the meeting, BTMA President Mohammad Ali Khokon demanded repeal of tariffs on man-made fiber in the forthcoming budget, a single rate of duty on imports of spare parts, and retention of 15 per cent corporate tax on textiles till 2030. Committee member and FICCI advisor Snehashish Barua suggested rationalizing the advance tax rate and formulating a single rate of VAT in the next budget. Representatives of various associations and chambers also complained about irregularities and harassment of VAT officials. They also demanded that the VAT collection process be brought under full automation. FBCCI Senior Vice President Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu, Vice President Salahuddin Alamgir, Md. Habib Ullah Dawn, MA Razzak Khan Raj, Director Harun Or Rashid, Amjad Hussain, Md. Naser, Dr. Nadia Binte Amin, Syed Sadat Almas Kabir, Abul Kasem Khan and FBCCI Secretary General Mohammad Mahfuzul Hoque were present.

The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) on Tuesday called upon the government for revision of supplementary duty on mobile services in the proposed budget and reform of telecom tax policy.

Leading mobile operators Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink say the increase of supplementary duty in the new proposed budget will be an additional burden to customers.