Chittagong, Jun 7: Doubling allocation for power and energy sectors in the just-unveiled budget will play a positive role in the overall development of the country, said Bangladesh Shippers' Council (SCB).
Chairman of the SCB Md Rezaul Karim said this while speaking on the proposed budget on Sunday.
He said that duty reduction on imported raw materials and capital machinery is another positive feature of the budget.
He said corporate tax cut back on the listed banks and non-banking financial institutions, insurance companies and trimming the tax rate for other listed companies up to 25 per cent is also a positive step while intention to reduce banks' interest rates is "encouraging".
Mr Karim appreciated the government for such a balanced budgetary proposal.
For the upcoming fiscal year, the government has set a GDP growth target of 7.0 per cent and keeping the rate of inflation within 6.2 per cent, which may keep the development process uninterrupted.
The government has also allocated Tk 2.0 billion for the enclave people, Tk 1.0 billion for climate fund and extended tax-free annual income limit to Tk 0.25 million from existing 0.22 following the increased cost of living and rising price of essentials.
But the jute export sector has not been duly evaluated in the budget except withdrawal of existing 4.0 per cent trade VAT on local sales of jute products and also withdrawal of 15 per cent VAT on the issuance of licence and renewal fee of jute products.
The government has proposed to impose 1.0 per cent tax at source on all export items including garment, terry towel, carton, accessories, frozen food, jute and jute products for the year 2015-16. Currently the apparel makers pay only 0.30 per cent tax at source while other export-oriented sectors pay 0.60 per cent.
Mr Karim noted that increase in source tax would hinder the country's overall export growth, raising production cost and destabilising development process.
Provisions for infrastructure development in the budget for Padma Bridge, Metro Rail, LNG Terminal, Paira Port at Patuakhali, Elevated Expressway, Tunnel under Karnaphuli River, Deep Sea Port and four-lane Highway will encourage the private sector, if transparency in implementation can be ensured. Tax holiday for IT (information technology) and handicraft export until 2019 is being welcomed by the community.
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