The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has once again offered tax benefits for the construction of the international standard luxury hotels in the country, allowing the interested investors to import capital machinery including plastic, wood and steel-made equipments by paying only 5% customs duty.
The board had earlier in April this year exempted the posh hotel builders from all the taxes, but 5% customs duty on the import of materials like exterior-interior decorations, kitchen and cooking equipment, building security equipment, fire-safety tools, electricity substation machinery, lighting and health club materials.
The board again exempted the entrepreneurs from paying taxes for the import of dunnage rack (plastic), steel sink, kitchen hood exceeding 120 CFM, RFID encoder, RFID key covered with hotel logo, wooden height box, height box, chair and steel furniture, according to a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) issued last week.
The exemption is to attract investment in the potential tourism and hospitality sector, said an official of NBR.
The NBR has finalised the list of the materials for giving tax benefits through discussions with the officials of the civil aviation and tourism ministry and Board of Investment (BoI).
According to officials, this exemption will be given only to the franchise of international chain hotels and local hotels of international standards to be certified by the tourism ministry. These facilities will be available only after the interested companies can obtain quality certification from the ministry concerned.
To get these tax benefits, the entrepreneurs will have to show all the agreement documents signed with the international chain luxury hotel companies.
For local luxury hotels of international standards, they will have to submit VAT payment certificates and approvals from the Board of Investment.
Tax benefits will remain effective only during the construction work of the hotels and will also continue until the commercial launching of the hotels.
As the number of foreign visitors and businessmen has been increased in recent times while Bangladesh hosted a series of international sporting events like T-20 World Cup Cricket tournament, the investors are keen to build and expand their luxury hotel business in the country.
The NBR had earlier made a decision for providing tax break to the investors in tourism sector as many hotels including Sea Pearl Beach Resort and Spa Ltd in Cox’s Bazar, Radisson Bay View Hotel in Chittagong, Hotel La Rose in Sylhet requested the NBR for the tax cut to help them in promoting hospitality sector.
