Finance minister proposes income tax exemption for freelancers

Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali proposed income tax exemption for freelancers in the proposed 2024-25 financial year budget.

"As a supporter of building Smart Bangladesh, I propose to exempt from tax the income arising from any of the following business activities of a resident individual or a non-resident Bangladeshi natural person, for three years, on the condition that all business activities of such a person are cashless," he said.

The minister came up with this proposal while placing the Tk7,97,000 crore national budget in parliament for the fiscal year 2024-25 at 3:04pm on Thursday (6 June).

He also proposed the same facilities for the following sectors:

a) AI based solution development b) Blockchain-based solution development c) Robotics process outsourcing d) Software as a service e) Cyber security service f) Digital data analytics and data science g) Mobile application development service h) Software development and customization i) Software test lab service j) Web listing, website development and service k) IT assistance and software maintenance service l) Geographic Information Service m) Digital animation development n) Digital graphics design o) Digital data entry and processing p) E-learning platform and e-publication q) Call center service r) Document conversion, imaging and digital archiving.

In his budget speech, the Finance Minister also mentioned that the amount of ICT goods or services exported in 2006 was %21 million, which increased to $1.9 billion.

The number of IT Freelancers increased from 200 to 6.80 lakh and Bangladesh occupied the 2nd position considering the number of freelancers, he stated.