The price of mobile phone sets is likely to get costlier as Finance Minister AMA Muhith has proposed to impose 15% value-added tax on import of handsets at import stage.
While placing the Budget for fiscal 2014-15, he said: “Some Companies are assembling quality mobile phones in the country. They have to pay 15%VAT at the assembling stage.
On the other hand, there is only 10 percent VAT on imports of mobile phones. This has created uneven competition between local assembling industries and imports,” he added.
“In view of this, I propose to impose 15% VAT on mobile phones at the import stage.”
