President of Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Zaved Akhtar on Wednesday said that Bangladesh needed to improve its tax GDP ratio from the ongoing 8.74% to 22% to achieve Vision 2041.
He made the remark while addressing a pre-budget meeting between the FICCI and the National Board of Revenue at the NBR headquarters in the capital’s Agargaon area.
The Ficci president said that the private sector’s cooperation would be indispensable to achieve the target.
Ficci identified the need for a comprehensive and Integrated Digital Architecture for the country to track economic transactions and attract taxes from the taxpayer, he said, and added that Ficci also highlighted the immediate action to integrate already available systems such as E-TDS, online return, e-TIN etc.
He also highlighted the need for the simplification of taxation systems and elimination of manual processes to ease compliance and reporting.
Ficci Board of Director Mohammad Iqbal Chowdhury, Executive Director TIM Nurul Kabir and the committee members attended the pre-budget discussion presided over by NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem.
Ficci Tax Consultant Snehasish Barua made a presentation on the chamber’s budget proposals for FY25.
During the meeting to enhance the Tax Net, Ficci proposed immediate integration with all the government agencies including City Corporation, Land Registration etc through which the country could bring more taxpayers into the tax bracket.
Ficci shared its recent research report “Catalyzing Greater FDI for Vision 2041: Priorities for building a conducive Tax System in Bangladesh”with NBR to facilitate the ongoing transformation in the taxation system.
The Ficci president also highlighted some recommendations from the report at the meeting such as collaboration with Ficci to work towards and integrated system that enables internal revenue mobilization, optimizing effective tax rate to enable greater FDI attraction competitiveness, Simplification of Tax (Reduction of TDS and withdrawal of minimum tax) by focusing on tax on income, unified VAT rate and apply this on value addition only and ensuring faster resolution.