Budget local industry friendly: Businesses

Business sector people have termed the proposed budget for 2021-22 fiscal year ‘local industry friendly’ as it has focused on lives and livelihoods.

They said the proposed budget has taken measures to protect local industries, save trade and business and create employment amid the pandemic-hit economic slowdown.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hassan has termed the proposed budget for the next fiscal year ‘very significant one’ due to the country’s celebrations of 50 years’ of independence and the global pandemic.

The BGMEA President said the budget focused more on all the issues related to the lives and livelihoods considering the current situation.

The government is providing an additional 1 percent cash incentive along with other existing export incentives to the textiles and RMG industry, and as a result, the sector has been able to successfully cope with the effects of the pandemic.

As this has continued in the current fiscal year, the textile and garment industry has turned around and achieved the expected exports despite the challenges arising from the pandemic situation, the BGMEA president said.

Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) President Rizwan Rahman said the budget is a big one with an aim to economic recovery and effort to balance between life and livelihood.

He also termed the proposed budget ‘a pro-people one’.

Thanking the government for reducing corporate tax both for listed and non-listed companies, he said it will help boost investment.

Terming revenue target ‘a challenge’, he requested the government to review the target and to widen tax net, collection of due taxes, tax collection in the district level, and tax automation for more revenue collection.

Mandatory e-TIN for national savings, cooperatives and postal savings will increase tax, he opined.

New industry like home appliance, light engineering, automobile, ICT got tax exemptions, which is good for the industrialisation, he said.

He also said the automobile industry, especially for three- and four-wheelers, will get a boost.

He also requested the government to rationalise advance income tax on export oriented RMG, jute and jute goods, agro processing and API raw materials.

BUILD, a business think tank, in its budget analysis said that so far the budget seems good in terms of the situation, and forward-looking giving ‘Made in Bangladesh’ concept will not only help businesses diversify but also create road for our LDC graduation.

NBR tax revenue growth is 7.28 percent in 2020-2021 where it lagged behind Tk 1 trillion. It could be widened in the upcoming fiscal year. The revenue deficit of last fiscal indicates that the dependence on deficit financing is increasing and it would upsurge (9 percent of GDP where tolerable limit is 5 percent) the burden of interest payment expenditure, it added.