Dhaka: The government has proposed to cut down the corporate tax rate only for the publicly traded companies while the tax structure for other categories remained unchanged in the upcoming FY2015-16.

In his budget speech for the fiscal year 2015-16 on Thursday, Finance Minister AMA Muhith proposed to reduce tax rate for the listed companies from the existing 27.5% to 25%.

He also proposed to cut down the corporate tax rate for publicly traded banks, insurance and financial institutions (except merchant banks) at 40% from the existing 42.5%,

Meanwhile, the government will collect uniform duty from both the publicly traded and non-publicly traded cigarette manufacturers at 45%, as said by the minister.

Currently, publicly traded cigarette manufacturers pay 40% tax while it is 45% for the non-publicly traded manufacturers.

The other rates however remain unchanged. Currently, non-publicly traded companies pay 35% tax, while non-publicly traded banks, insurance, and financial institutions pay 42.5% tax. The tax rate is 37.5% for merchant banks. For the publicly traded mobile companies, the tax rate is 40% while it is 45% for the non-publicly traded mobile network operators.

The minimum tax on any company’s gross receipts remains unchanged at 0.30%. Currently, any company having gross receipts of more than Tk 50 lakh, irrespective of its profits or loss, has to pay minimum tax at the rate of 0.30%. However, the newly established manufacturing companies will pay the tax at the rate of 0.1% for the first three years.