The Information and Communication Technology sector demanded the tax holiday facility be extended till 2024 so it could thrive like the country’s largest ready-made garment industry.
Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) and Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) submitted their budget proposals to the Finance Minister for the upcoming 2015-16 fiscal year yesterday.
State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak and ICT Secretary Shyam Sundar Shikder were also present during the submission of the budget proposals at the finance minister’s Secretariat office.
BSS and BASIS demands also include withdrawal of value-added tax from all sorts of e-commerce products for three-five years, withdrawal of 4.5% VAT from the ICT services, and automation of the VAT payment system for the large tax-paying industries.
They also favoured imposing a high tax on imported customised operating system and database software to protect the local developers.
But the organisations refrained from demanding the withdrawal of VAT from internet uses, though it has remained a major burden for the end-users.
“We asked the finance minister to give us (budget) facilities for the next 10 years. We can change the whole country through the development of the ICT sector,” BSS president Abu Hanif Md Mahfuzul Arif told Dhaka Tribune after the meeting.
“The finance minister listened to us and promised he would do something as the government plans to build a digital Bangladesh. He told us he also wants to give a big surprise to the ICT industry and the whole nation in his June budget speech,” Abu Hanif said.