The
National Board of Revenue is going to start today month-long pre-budget
discussions with stakeholders to prepare revenue budget for the next fiscal
year 2015-2016.
The
NBR will hold meetings with the stakeholders from more than 50 sectors
including trade bodies, business associations and professional organisations.
At
the meetings, the revenue board will seek stakeholders’ recommendations
regarding trade facilitation, taxation, and measures to provide local
industries with protection and increase revenue collection through budgetary
measures in the next fiscal year, officials concerned said.
Like
previous years, the NBR will also seek suggestions from stakeholders to prepare
a participatory, pro-people and business-friendly national budget, they said.
Rational
proposals related to income tax, customs duty and value-added tax will be
considered, they added.
According
to the schedule, on the first day of the series of meetings, the NBR will
discuss today with the representatives of hotel, restaurant, guest house,
paper, printing, film, advertisement, and clinic and diagnostics sectors.
The
NBR will hold meetings with the representatives from construction, real estate,
pharmaceuticals, rubber, plastic, small, medium and large industries sectors on
April 2, with Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industries on April 5, with
Bangladesh Chamber of Industries, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries, and
Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Foreign Investors’ Chamber of
Commerce and Industries, Bangladesh India Chamber of Commerce and Industries
and other chambers on April 7, with bond-related export sectors, textiles,
readymade garment, jute, yarn and export sectors without bond facility on April
8, with banks, financial institutions, stock exchanges and SME Foundation on
April 9, with C&F agents, freight forwarding, tax lawyers, indenters,
Institute of Cost Management Accountants Bangladesh, Institute of Chartered
Accountants of Bangladesh on April 12, with cigarette manufacturers, ceramic
and mobile operators, agriculture and poultries sectors on April 16, with
electronics, electrical, ICT and automobile sectors on April 15, with Economic
Reporters’ Forum on April 19, and with divisional chambers on April 26 and
April 30.
The
revenue board will also sit with other stakeholders on other business days, the
officials said.
The NBR has already assigned its first secretary
Abdus Samad Al Azad as chief budget coordinator. (Source: New Age, April 1,
2015)