Poultry firm owners have expressed concern over the fresh duty, upfront taxes and customs duty levied on the import of raw materials in the budget for the current fiscal year, and also called for withdrawing those taxes and duties.
They said chicken and egg prices might increase after Eid-ul-Azha and the Tk25,000 crore poultry industry should enjoy the tax exemption facility for at least another 10 years in order for it to grow.
They also said the new taxes had caused production costs to go up and many farms had already been shut in the face of heavy losses while many more were on the verge of closure.
Mashiur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Poultry Industries Coordination Committee and convener of Feed Industries Association, told a press briefing at the committee’s Niketon office in the capital yesterday that efforts to make policymakers understand why the new tax burdens would lead to a terrible situation for the poultry industry had failed.
“Direct interventions of the prime minister and the finance minister are the only way forward to remove the barriers that stemmed from the imposition of taxes.”
Mashiur also said there was no tax on the earnings from the poultry industry but a 10% tax had been imposed in the budget.
President of Bangladesh chapter of World’s Poultry Science Association Shamsul Arefin Khaled Anjan said the difficulties could have been avoided if the government had imposed the taxes gradually.
He said the poultry sector thrived fast as farm owners re-invested their profits.
