Up to Tk 5,000 ax exemption for rtistes on cards oulot Akter Mala

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is set to give tax exemption on the honorarium of performers of television and film up to Tk 5,000 after it found some artistes concealing their actual earning from the head. In the budget for fiscal 2011-12, the government has withdrawn all exemption ceiling for artistes and slapped a 10 per cent tax on their honorarium. Earlier, performers enjoyed tax exemption up to Tk 36,000 on their earning as an artiste. An NBR official said the Ministry of Finance has recently instructed the board to allow up to Tk 5,000 tax exemption for performers instead of withdrawal of the total tax benefit. A senior tax official said a total of three issues, including tax benefit for performers, will be placed before parliament for bringing change in the tax law as those measures were incorporated in the Finance Bill-2011. f the fiscal measures, two are related with the capital market that came through the bail-out package offered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), he said. Reintroduction of tax benefit for secondary market investors and foreign investors needs approval of the parliament, he added. The official said the ceiling was withdrawn after the taxmen found some artistes in film and other media to be concealing their actual income for years evading millions of taka in taxes. The Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) of the board has also taken action against two renowned artistes for concealing income in their tax returns. Tax files of film artistes Shakib Khan and Apu Biswas were brought under NBR scanner and updated after follow-up. The CIC had frozen accounts of Apu Biswas and Shakib Khan. The accounts were opened after payment of all due taxes.