Cut duties, taxes on 28 daily essentials: CPD

Staff Reporter :
Providing some respite to consumers amid higher inflation, Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has urged for reduction of duties and taxes of 28 daily essentials both at import and domestic levels. The CPD analysis shows that at least 28 imported essential food items still face a high incidence of tax.
CPD made this proposal in the pre-budget discussion held at the National Board of Revenue (NBR) office at Agargaon in the capital on Tuesday. Concurrently, a list of 28 imported products was also given to the NBR after proposing to reduce the duties and taxes on those products in the next budget.
Products on which the CPD suggested to decrease the duties are different types of frozen meat (cow, buffalo, mutton etc.), poultry, fish (Rui, Catla, Pangas,other carp fishes), Hilsa, various types of milk and milk products, Tomato, onion, garlic, dates, cinnamon, pepper, coriander, ginger, turmeric, corn, rice, palm oil, and salt.
Speaking at the event, Muntaseer Kamal, research fellow of the CPD, said that, it is proposed that such taxes should be reconsidered, especially in view of the current cost-of-living crisis prevailing in the economy.
Besides, the tax-free income threshold for personal income should be raised to Tk 3.50 lakh considering the added pressure of rising commodity prices, particularly those of food items, said the CPD.
The tax-free income limit for individual taxpayers was last increased to Tk3 lakh in the financial year 2020-21.
“The highest tax rate should be reinstated at 30 per cent for top earners in the upcoming 2023-24 budget to promote tax Justice”, said the think-tank.The cigarette industry’s pricing encourages the purchase of relatively cheaper cigarettes. The complicated tiered tobacco tax framework supports differential pricing. So, the tobacco tax structure needs to be streamlined, said the CPD.
CPD also asked to abolish the opportunity to whiten black money with the offshore tax amnesty and make a time-bound plan to phase out tax exemptions.
At the discussion, Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) highlighted its position against the existing a protectionist policy.
Abu Hena Md. Rahmatul Muneem , the NBR chairman said at the event that we are working to prepare an extended tax payers list as the Tax- GDP ratio should be increased at a faster pace than the prevailing one to meet the challenges of LDC graduation.
Other organizations including SME Foundation, Bangladesh Development Research Institute (BIDS), Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA), Economic Research Group (ERG), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also presented their proposals at the pre-budget discussions.