The income tax division of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to offer a tax holiday facility to the manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and laboratory reagents.
API is the part of any drug that produces the intended effects. Meanwhile, a tax holiday is a government incentive programme that offers a tax reduction or elimination to businesses.
“The move came to encourage local production of pharmaceutical items, as well as increasing export,” NBR spokesperson Syed A Momen told Dhaka Tribune.
The spokesperson said that NBR is yet to decide the tenure of the facility, which usually remains in effect for 10 to 20 years.
The API manufacturers are entitled to the tax benefit, according to the National API and Laboratory Reagents Production and Export Policy 2018.
