Put new VAT law on hold for a year
Parliament: Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu on Thursday suggested the government to suspend the new Value Added Tax (VAT) law for one year with a view to removing the confusion over the unified 15 percent VAT.
"The new VAT is an epoch-making one but confusion is spreading over it... I would like to tell the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister to suspend it this time. Otherwise, it won't be possible to remove the confusion. Introduce it next time removing the confusion and convincing all," he said.
The Information Minister made the suggestion participating in the general discussion over the proposed 400,266-crore national budget in Parliament.
Inu asked the Finance Minister to withdraw 15 percent VAT from the newspaper industry. "It'll hinder the development of media achieved over the last few years. I would like to request the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister to withdraw the proposed VAT from the newspaper industry," he added.
He said he does not agree with the critics of new VAT law at all, though he does not support much the VAT system in principle as the same VAT rate is imposed for all equally not considering rich and poor people.
"The poor are affected by VAT system. I think you should consider introduction of the Goods and Sales Tax (GST), which is effective in the modern world," he said.
Inu also asked the Finance Ministry to enact a new law of asset tax and reconsider corporate tax and introduce progressive income tax policy.
About the excise duty on bank accounts, he suggested that no excise duty should be imposed on the bank accounts having balance of less than Tk five lakh for the wellbeing of the low and middle-class people.
Noting that there are many weak points in the budget Inu said, "Looting money from the banks continues. The syndicate of corrupt is still active. We'll have to thwart the syndicate," he added.
He lambasted the critics of only three issues of budget -- additional excise duty on bank accounts, new VAT law and interest rate of saving certificate. "They criticised the Finance Minister only for three issues, but there're many significant issues in the proposed budget," Inu said.