The Posts, Telecommunications and IT Ministry has proposed imposing taxes on the import of computers and laptops in the fiscal year (FY) 2022-23 to facilitate development of the local IT industry.
The ministry recently placed the recommendation to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Ministry of Finance to discourage imports and encourage local manufacturing and assembling of the devices.
The proposal also included providing a 5% tax incentive to the local manufacturers and zero tax on the import of basic parts.
Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar said: "Whatever the percentage, we want a 25% tax gap between imported laptops-computers and locally manufactured gadgets."
It is possible to manufacture computers and laptops locally if proper fiscal policy can be offered to the manufacturers, he said.
A number of global companies are ready to set up factories in Bangladesh if the country offers tax benefits to the local computer and laptop manufacturing companies, said the minister.
Last year, the ministry proposed a 3.32% import tax on laptops and computers - NBR agreed with the proposal.
The issue of imposing taxes on the imported devices has been discussed in a recent meeting of Digital Bangladesh Taskforce, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Jabbar, who was present in the meeting, said members of the taskforce and the prime minister herself had positively discussed the import tax.
The government introduced budgetary incentives for the local manufacturing and assembling of handsets in FY2017-2018 and carried it forward to the FYs 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.
As a result, a total of 15 brands, including global smartphone vendors Samsung, Symphony, Oppo, Nokia and Realme, started production in Bangladesh.
These brands produce 85% of the smartphones in the local market and meet 55% of the local demand for both smartphones and feature phones.
According to the BTRC, some 26.1 million handsets were manufactured in Bangladesh in FY 2020-21, against 14.9 million in the previous FY 2019-20.
On the other hand, some 15.2 million mobile handsets were imported in FY 2020-21 - 4.6% higher than the import in FY 2019-20.
Once solely import-dependent, Bangladesh is on track to becoming self-reliant in smartphone production, which already captures a major market share with local manufacturing just after four years of inception.
The posts and telecommunications minister said the country now had the capacity to manufacture and assemble locally.
Walton is currently marketing 23 models of laptop, 13 models of desktop, 4 models of monitor along with various models of gaming and standard keyboard and mouse, pen drive and earphone. The prices of Walton laptops range between Tk19,990-79,950.
Walton, after assembling at its plant, exports laptops to Nigeria, Bhutan, Nepal and some other countries.
The company has an annual target of selling 100,000 units of laptops while it produces pen drives, keyboards and mouses at its plant.
Currently, there is no tax on the import of computers which was introduced in 1998.