DCCI opposes proposed property tax

Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday opposed re-introduction of wealth tax in the name of property tax that was proposed by National Board of Revenue which would be effective from fiscal 2012-13.

'It is illogical to impose property tax reviving the Wealth Tax Act-1963 that was repealed in 1999 as the provision of imposing such tax was considered regressive,' the trade body's president Asif Ibrahim told reporters at a press meet at its auditorium organised to present proposals for the forthcoming national budget.

'The government collects huge amount of money for the registration of land when the ownership of land is transferred from one hand to another,' Asif said, asking 'why, then, the landowner should pay the extra money as tax?'

The DCCI president presented the recommendation paper which contained a total of 64 different proposals for income tax, import and supplementary duties and value added tax.

The paper said that tax network and tax to GDP ratio should be increased as the country has now only 3 million people holding tax identification numbers. The government should ease the method of income tax return and achieve the confidence of the taxpayers.

The DCCI recommended that the government should extend the tax holiday facility up to 2015 and the industries installed outside export processing zones should be bought under the tax holiday facility.

It said that the tax collected on the interests achieved from deposit bonds should be considered as the final tax liability.

DCCI recommended that the knitting, dyeing and weaving industries should be considered as export sector and given the facility of 0.40 percent advance income tax as their final tax.

The DCCI president requested the government to increase the ceiling of tax-free income to Tk 2,25,000 from the existing Tk 1,65,000.

The chamber requested the NBR to reduce the corporate tax on profit for the listed companies from 27.5 percent to 20 percent, maintain a gap of 10 percent between the listed and non-listed companies for tax on profit and reduce the tax rate from 42.5 percent to 40 percent for the banks and financial institutions.

It also called for setting the import duty on capital machinery at zero percent, gradually reducing the duty on basic and raw materials to zero percent with a 3 percent duty for the next fiscal, 12 percent duty on intermediary products, and 25 percent on finished products.

The chamber also requested the government to remove the indiscriminate imposition of 5 percent regulatory duty on finished products.

The DCCI president urged the government to waive import duty on LPG mixture (main material for LPG cylinder), cylinder, valve and regulator to popularise the use of LPG gas for cooking.

DCCI senior vice-president TIM Nurul Kabir, vice-president Nasir Hossain and treasurer Abu Horaira also spoke at the meeting.

Syed Mosharraf Hossain, Hossain A Sikder, Niaz Rahim, Mahabub Anam, Waqar Ahmad Choudhury, Nasiruddin Khan and Absar Karim Chowdhury, among the directors, were present at the press meet.

Source: New Age