Muhith: Bank excise duty long existed, we just increased it

Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the excise duty on bank deposit had been there since long and the government had just increased it a little in the FY2017-18 budget. “Excise duty on bank deposit has long existed in our country. We have increased it a bit only,” he told parliament on Tuesday during a discussion on supplementary budget of the FY2016-17. He also said the government would take steps to curb use of black money in the market from next month. “For the last couple of years, we have not given any proposal in the budgets to whiten black money. But there is a huge fee of 20% imposed on black money for whitening,” Muhith said. About money laundering, he said a complete prevention of money laundering is impossible in the country. In reply to a question, Muhith said the government would decide on reducing profit rate of saving instruments. “But it will take time.”Supplementary budget passedThe supplementary budget of Tk18,370 crore for the FY2016-17 was passed in parliament on Tuesday. Muhith also raised the Specification Bill 2017 in parliament and it was passed on voice votes. The opposition parties and independent members in parliament offered 149 cut motions on the supplementary budget. But all of them were cancelled by voice votes. Explanatory statement of Supplementary Financial Statement has been stated that the net budget of FY2016-17 was Tk340,604 crore, in favour of 59 ministries and divisions. Among the cut motions, four proposals for the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Housing and Public Works, Local Government Division and Technical and Madrasa Education Department were discussed.