The Bangladesh Parliament is set to pass the Finance Bill 2020 on Monday with some possible changes, including the withdrawal of the proposed supplementary duty on telecom services.
Besides, the parliament will approve the Appropriations Bill 2020 on June 30 through which the Tk5,68,000 crore national budget for the FY21 will be passed, reports BSS.
The sittings of the House will resume at 11:00am on Monday after a five-day recess as the session was last adjourned on June 23.
This will be the last day for holding general discussions on the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
After the leader of the House and the prime minister delivers her speech on the proposed budget tomorrow, the finance minister would deliver his concluding speech, and thus would incorporate the suggestions from the various quarters on the Finance Bill including the prime minister and other lawmakers.
According to officials at the Finance Ministry, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal may cancel his plans to raise the supplementary duty on telecom services, and double the deposit in VAT-related disputes following criticism and demands from various quarters.
While placing the Tk5,68,000 crore budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 on June 11, the minister proposed raising the supplementary duty on all kinds of telecom services to 15% from the existing 10%.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the move, both the operators and the users said the taxes on mobile phone use were increased in the last few years, which has negatively impacted the service-availing trend of the customers.
Besides, some cabinet members and members of parliament also requested the finance minister to cancel the proposed supplementary duty.
The Finance Ministry officials said the finance minister may keep most of his fiscal measures about the income tax unchanged.
Kamal has already proposed a lot of concessions in the direct tax segment to ease the burden on the individual and corporate taxpayers amid the coronavirus pandemic, they added.
The proposed budget is also likely to witness a change in the deposit needed for appealing against tax claims before VAT commissioners and appellate tribunals.
The finance minister has proposed to increase it from the current 10% of the disputed amount to 20%.
