The National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Wednesday exempted Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and surgical masks (including face masks) from Value Added Tax (VAT) list considering their necessity in the fight against coronavirus.
The revenue collecting authority issued a statutory regulatory order (SRO) in this connection saying the VAT exemption on production, trading and supply level will be applicable till June 30 of this year.
In the SRO, signed by first secretary of VAT Policy Kazi Farid Uddin, it said that doctors, nurses and other related persons need to wear standard PPE and surgical masks to provide treatment and other services to coronavirus patients.
Besides, due to the spread of coronavirus in the coming days, the country needs a huge amount of PPE and surgical masks (including face masks) which play important roles in this type of crisis moment, it said.
It noted that the government has taken various measures to face COVID-19. On March 22, the government exempted all taxes on coronavirus safety kits and raw materials to speed up their import.
The 17 items include PPE, raw materials for hand sanitisers, coronavirus testing kits, surgical masks and disinfectants.
So far, Bangladesh has confirmed 11,719 coronavirus cases - 790 of them on Wednesday - and 186 deaths.
