Businesses yesterday called for structural reforms in the tax system to reduce the cost of doing business, ease compliance burdens, and improve investment competitiveness.

Bangladesh will not be able to realise its ambition of becoming a trillion-dollar economy by 2034 unless it revives investment, foreign investors and development partners said yesterday.

Despite steady economic growth, Bangladesh’s tax system continues to underperform, with average annual revenue shortfalls reaching nearly Tk 59,000 crore over the past five years, according to the Policy Research Institute (PRI) of Bangladesh.

Mobile phone calls and metro rail commutes among other daily activities may cost more in the next fiscal year as the government looks to increase taxes to boost its revenue collections.