FBCCI wants withdrawal of advance tax
The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) has called for withdrawing advance taxes levied at the import level.
"The post-production adjustment chain has broken down due to the inability to adjust advance tax and the non-collection of VAT (value added tax) deducted at source," the country's apex trade body stated in a written proposal at a pre-budget discussion with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in the capital on Tuesday.
"At the same time, capital liabilities are increasing, the cost of doing business, time, and hassles are also on the rise, and the industrialisation process is facing unnecessary hurdles," it added.
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When the government implemented the new VAT Act in 2019, the advance tax system was introduced at the import level, whereby a 4% AT is imposed on the import price.
Earlier, it was imposed as advance trade VAT, or ATV. As there is no such provision under the new law, it is being levied as AT.
According to the law, there is a scope for this AT to be adjusted later. However, businesses say that it is not possible for the importers to adjust this AT by fulfilling the existing conditions. As a result, a huge amount of working capital is getting stuck. Businessmen have been raising their objections on this issue for a long time.
The government has continued discussions with stakeholders ahead of the budget presentation for the next fiscal year in June. The discussion is already over. The discussions will be formally concluded through a formal consultative meeting with the FBCCI.
According to sources at the FBCCI and NBR, like previous years, this time they are holding informal discussions with the apex trade body on various issues, as part of which this discussion was held on Tuesday.
Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu, senior vice president of FBCCI, led the organisation's four-member delegation.
In the meeting, FBCCI also made some other proposals, including bringing companies with turnover above the prescribed limit under the Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU-Vat) office.
