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India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IBCCI) and Bangladesh China Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCCI) want to import goods using Indian and Chinese currency to save the country’s foreign exchange reserves and make bilateral trade smoother.
At a discussion, organised by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) at its office, in Dhaka on Sunday, leaders of both chambers asked NBR to ease import at every land port as Benapole is now facing higher pressure.
IBCCI President Abdul Matlub Ahmad said the country now exports around $2 billion worth of goods to India while imports around $16 billion.
If Bangladeshi traders import goods worth Rs 2 billion or at least the same amount of export earnings using the Indian currency, it will reduce the trade deficit and increase export earnings to $3 billion soon, he said.
NBR may consider cutting import duty and VAT at the local stage in the national budget for FY2023-24 to expand the electric motorcycle production industry as it will save fuel and increase revenue, IBCCI leaders said at the pre-budget discussion.
They also urged NBR to include CNG-run three-wheelers and LNG and LPG-driven cars into the relevant SRO and consider rebates on tax, duty and VAT facilities. BCCCI leaders also urged NBR to give duty-free facilities for electric motorcycles or reduce the duty to encourage the sector to save fuel and reduce carbon emissions.
NBR needs to fix the value with separate HS code, CBU and CKD to this end, they said, and added that the difference in duty between CBU and CKD condition should be fixed at 25 per cent.
BCCCI also called for reducing the highest income tax to 18 per cent from 25 per cent for personal income and withdrawing the surcharge on personal income which is now 10-35 per cent.
VAT, surcharge and income tax on indenting commission consultancy should be withdrawn to increase foreign exchange, chamber leaders said. Now, there is a 10 per cent VAT and 27.5 per cent income tax on this.
Moreover, they said 5 per cent VAT should be imposed at only one stage of business instead of every stage for the mobile phone industry and 2 per cent advance income tax on raw materials instead of the existing 5 per cent.
BCCCI also urged NBR to extend the duration of VAT exemption on mobile phone production to 2025. The current deadline will end on June 30 this year.
It suggested making a policy to ease the production and export of mobile phones and called for exempting duties on raw materials imported to manufacture mobile phones meant for export.
Meanwhile, the Women Entrepreneurs Network for Development Association urged NBR to raise the tax-free income limit for women to Tk 7 lakh for the next five fiscal years from the existing Tk 3.5 lakh, after taking Covid-19 and the economic crisis triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war into consideration.
It said that VAT on up to an annual turnover of Tk 50 lakh for women entrepreneurs should be exempted and fixed at 4 per cent for annual turnovers between Tk 50 lakh and Tk 4 crore, considering the ongoing stress on the economy.
