Businesses demand faster clearance of tax and VAT refund

Businesses in the port city yesterday said they have to wait long for getting refund of advance tax they paid earlier and demanded that the revenue collector expedite faster refund so that they can overcome the current challenges of liquidity crunch.

The appeal came at a pre-budget meeting organised by the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) at the World Trade Centre in Chattogram.

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National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem and senior officials of the NBR attended the meeting.

In response, Muneem said they are working on solving these problems soon.

At the meeting, businesses also urged the tax authority to provide tax benefits so that they can overcome the ongoing challenges such as high cost of production for rising prices and dollar crisis.

Muneem, however, said local industries should be self-reliant and competitive enough so that they can face any challenge stemming from Bangladesh's graduation from a least developed country in 2026.

He said the industries that need to be supported by tax and value-added tax benefits and duty protection won't be able to cope with those challenges.

Earlier, the CCCI had sent around 190 proposals to the NBR for addressing these issues in the upcoming national budget.

CCCI President Mahbubul Alam, who chaired the meeting, proposed raising the tax-free income limit for individual taxpayers from Tk 3 lakh to Tk 5 lakh considering the current global economic situation.

Underscoring the need for increasing the number of income tax payers to enhance revenue, he said almost half of the TIN holders in Bangladesh do not submit annual returns.

He then suggested giving those who have TIN registration but never submitted returns a chance to make their income tax files regular by introducing a Tk 5,000 annual fine for each year of non-submission.

He also proposed reducing the VAT on different goods from 15 per cent to 10 per cent seeing as businesses and general people are suffering from the US dollar shortage and inflation.

The CCCI president went on to say that complexities in the HS Code should be addressed to reduce losses for importers.

Muneem then urged businesspeople, including garment factory owners, to focus on making branded products to remain competitive in the global market.

Syed M Tanvir, vice-president of the CCCI, urged for duty exemptions in importing solar panels and related machineries for an interim period as it would encourage industries to source power from alternative sources amid the energy crisis.

NBR members Md Masud Sadik, Dr Shams Uddin Ahmed and Zakia Sultana also spoke on different issues at the event, where the leaders of different trade bodies were present among others.