Frequent changes in tax and VAT structures have intensified plight of the local entrepreneurs who are already struggling to survive the competition inflicted by the challenging global trade, Taskeen Ahmed, president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said.
He was addressing a view exchange meeting at the chamber’s Gulshan office in the capital, which was attended by the leaders of small trade bodies from Gulshan, Mohakhali, Banani and Badda area were present.
Identifying complexity in tax and VAT system as a major challenge for the businessmen, Taskeen said: “The additional burden of advance income tax adjustment issue and regulatory duty, existing obstacles in import-export activities are creating extra pressure on the country’s private sector.”
At the meeting, small traders expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in LC adjustment, unstable dollar value, high rate of interest on bank loans, harassment in payment of VAT, and increase of VAT and tax on various products.
They also cited complexity of trade license renewal process and high fees, deteriorating law and order situation and unbearable traffic congestion in the city roads.
The DCCI president also mentioned that the recent unstable law and order situation and deteriorating traffic system is destroying trade and investment climate.
He also highlighted limited access to credits by the SMEs, high lending rates, unstable dollar rate are hampering our local industrialization.
“In such a situation, it is essential to take coordinated initiatives involving both public and private sectors and effectively implement those to develop the country’s overall economy,” he noted.
Mohammad Ariful Islam, National Board of Revenue’ s (NBR) first secretary (VAT Implementation), told the meeting that the NBR has been given a large revenue target to collect which is a challenging task indeed.
He sought cooperation from all, including businessmen, to achieve this challenging target, adding that recently. an initiative has been taken to register the gold traders and the NBR is working to expand the scope of tax net at the grassroots level.
He further stated that the NBR is working towards implementing an integrated revenue management system which is automated and transparent.
Speaking about the deteriorating law and order situation, Md Tarek Mahmud, deputy commissioner of police (Gulshan Division), said after the recent political transformation, reform in the police department is also going on.
“Bangladesh Police is a hard working force and to improve the trust of the people and the law and order situation, this force is firmly committed. We’ve zero tolerance for any miscreants whether he has any political affiliation or not,” he said.
He appealed to all sections of people, including traders, to help the police department by providing them with information as extortion, harassment and encroachment of footpaths so that they can resolve those issues.
Small trade bodies alleged that it takes about three months from LC opening date to its final settlement, sometimes creating capital shortage for them.
At the view-exchange meeting, Md Sayedul Islam, additional director (foreign exchange policy department) of Bangladesh Bank, said fixation of the LC margins actually depends on the relationship between the bank and the customer, adding that the issue of LC margin is not the same for all products as well.
“Our local traders have suffered a lot due to the unusual fluctuations in the value of the US dollar that happened due to global unrest caused by the Covid pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, but the central bank is working to keep the value of the dollar stable,” he said.
DCCI senior vice president Razeev H Chowdhury and Md Salem Sulaiman were also present at the meeting.
