|
|
|
|
||||
| Budget |
||||
|
|
||||
|
Indirect Taxes Customs Duty
15. I have so far presented proposals relating to dirc i.e., income and corporate, taxes, Now I am placing, throu~ you, before this august Parliament proposals regarding one the very important indirect taxes, i.e., Customs Duties,
16. In this era of globalization, although ti dependence of the government on customs duties as a source revenue has gradually been decreasing, the major portion such revenues still comes from duties and taxes levied at ti import stage. Value Added Tax (VAT), Supplementary Du (SD), Advance Income Tax (AlT) and Jnfrastructu Development Surcharge (IDSC) are at present collected alor with Import Duties at the import stage, perhaps because it collected in advance and is relatively easy to do so. I believe that the types of duties and taxes and their rates can be significantly reduced once the mindset of the tn-payers undergoes a change for the better and transparency and accountability in tax administration is ensured.
17. Of the total national tax revenue, customs duty alone constitutes around 28%, which would rise up to 50% if we add to it other duties and taxes collected at the import stage. This revenue earning could have been still higher had the import of around 40% under bond and another 18% duty exempt imports, valued approximately at Taka 60,000/- crore, not been released without payment of duties and taxes. Import duties as a source of revenue has, however, been gradually losing its importance awing to the introduction of free market economy around the globe. Bangladesh, naturally, cannot be an exception to this. As a member of the WTO, we have also to reduce our dependence on import duties. Various rates of import and other duties at different slabs were leviable at import stage. While presenting the budgets for the last two fiscal years, I made commitment to reduce the number of rates of import duties. I also expressed my desire in presenting the budget of the last fiscal year, of reducing the number of customs duties from the existing four and also to significantly bring down the number of existing supplementaiy duties. In fulfillment of that commitment, I now propose to bring the existing four-tier customs duties to three as well as to lower the highest of such rates. The existing four-tier duty rates are 7.5%, 15%, 22.5% and 30%. I now propose to re-structure them to a three-tier rate of 7.5%, 15% and 25%. Similarly, the existing seven rates of supplementary duties leviable on imports of general nature are 15%, 25%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60% and 75%. I propose to
18. The list of importable articles now contains a variety of items numbering 6,799. After re-structuring the rates of customs duty and bringing tern down to three from the existing four, the number of zero-rated items would be 519 in place of the existing 541. Likewise, the number of items at 7.5% would be 1510 in place of the present 1,431, and at 15%, 1,879 in place of 1,305. Wit the abolition of 22.5% as a dutyrate, te items numbering a total of 1117 previously falling within this rate, have now found their places in any of the three re-structured rates. With the items numbering 2405 under the existing rate of 30% now falling under the proposed 25% rate and another 569 items brought from other rates, the total number of items under 25% would stand at 2,891. As a consequence of this re-structuring of rates from four to three and based on the present import value, te estimated gains in revenue Would be around Taka 325 crore and the estimated loss would be around Taka 1,100 crore. The estimated net revenue loss would consequently be to te tune of Taka 775 crore (Annexe-'B'). But, then, gains in revenue in nominal ternis from import as a result of inflation, normal growth and restructuring of duty rates is estimated to be around taka 2,000 crore. Administrative improvements resulting from the use of Information Technology in the management of bonded
19. Prices of both crude and refined petroleum have registered a significant rise in the international market. The government is very careful to avoid its adverse impact. With this end in view, we have kept the assessable value of one barrel of crude oil unchanged and fixed at US$ 18.30, despite the same being priced at over US$ 40 in the international market. In addition to this, I now propose to withdraw the existing AdVance Income Tax (AlT) from all types of petroleum as well as to reduce the existing supplementary duty on Kerosene from 25% td 15%, As a result, tax burden on crude oil, Kerosene and all other fuel oil will be reduced by 9%, 25% and 10%, respectively. 20. Considering the importance of the textile sector in the national economy, our government has all along been providing necessary assistance to this sector. In continuation of this and in addition to the facilities already provided, I propose to reduce the existing rates of duty on most of the raw materials and essential machinery and spares needed by this industry 4nnexe- 'B').
21. The country is now witnessing a very welcome expansion of dairy and poultry farming, in fact agriculture in general, as a result of timely steps taken for their development and expansion by our government soon after it came to power. In order to provide the sector a further boost, I propose to withdraw customs duty and value added tax on most of the capital machinery needed for this sector (Annexe -'B). 22. In order to ensure supply of electricity to far-flung and inaccessible rural areas at a relatively cheaper cost through generation of solar energy, I propose to withdraw customs duty and value added tax leviable on the machinery, parts and components needed for this sector. Private entrepreneurs, I hope, will come forward to take advantage of this and will contribute towards making electricity available to rural areas at a cheaper cost (Annexe -'B').
23. The country does not practically have any high quality referral hospital of international standard. Many of our citizens are compelled to go abroad for the treatment of life-threatening diseases, although the same is often extremely expensive. Despite our having highly qualified, efficient and experienced physicians and doctors, sophisticated and high-quality treatment of patients is not available in the country for the sheer lack of quality hospitals. I, therefore, propose to withdraw customs duty on medical and hospital equipment and
24. I would now place before this August Parliament a few of the important proposals relating to customs and supplementary duties -
(c) About 80% of the papers imported in the country is now subjected to duty at the rate of 30% and the rest at a slightly lower rate. Both these rates are proposed to be unified and re-fixed at 25% across the board; and (d) The highest rate of customs duty having been reduced and the supplementary duty rates undergoing restructuring, it has become imperative to rationalise duty on motor cars and jeeps. Supplementary Duty on motor cars and jeeps is, therefore, proposed to be re-fixed at 30% in place of the existing 15% on those having cylinder capacity up to 1649. For those having cylinder capacity above 1649 but not exceeding 3,000, it is proposed to be enhanced to 60% from the existing 40%, and for those having a cylinder capacity over 3000 it is proposed to be raised to 90% from the existing 75%.
17
For Previous Budgets Click Here
|
||||
| |
|
|
|
©
Copyright and Fair Use . SDNP Bangladesh holds
the © copyright to its publications and web pages but |
