The Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on Wednesday urged the government to mitigate the tax burden on the individuals and corporates considering the country’s present economic situation.
The trade body made the call at its post-budget conference at a city hotel, also expressing concern over some provisions of the draft Income Tax Act (ITA) 2023 that might affect the businesses thus creating further inflationary stress on the consumers.
FICCI President Naser Ezaz Bijoy, Senior Vice President Deepal Abeywickrema, Coordinator of its Tariff-Taxation and Regulatory Affairs Committee Sazzad Rahim Chowdhury, Member of the committee Debabrata Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director T.I.M Nurul Kabir and Consultant Snehasish Barua were present among others.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Bijoy said the progressive changes proposed in the budget for fiscal year 2023-24 are laudable, but the growth of businesses and individuals might slow down with the disclosure of some of the provisions that would increase the tax burden.
The FICCI believes that the individual’s tax-free income ceiling should be increased further considering the inflationary pressure, he said. Hailing the proposed carbon tax on additional vehicles, he said that it should not affect the companies.
Despite some positive aspects, there are also some issues in the proposed budget, he said. “There are some provisions in the proposed budget which could be detrimental to businesses and individuals in a time when everyone is struggling.”
The budget actually missed some definitive action plans to contain inflation, he said.
Regarding turnover tax rate, The FICCI president said the provisions in this regard don’t recognise the losses in a business.
He also said that the increase in the property tax instead of lowering it by showing the actual mouza value would pave the way to further tax evasion in the country.
“Such provision is highly detrimental to the compliant organisations like the FICCI members which want to do business with transparency,” he added.
Regarding the sudden changes in tax policy, he said: “This is actually very discomforting for an investor — be it domestic or foreign.”
Making a presentation on the proposed budget and its implications, Snehasish Barua said the implementation of the budget should be prospective, not retrospective.
“If we come to know that a new rule is going to be implemented on the last year’s financials, we don’t get an equity structure in such a tax regime,” he said.
He also called for making available an English version of the draft income tax act so that the foreign investors can understand this.
The FICCI is a platform of more than 200 multinational companies and foreign investors from 35 countries across the globe.
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