Bangladesh guidelines for fill-up income tax returns for fiscal year 2015-2016

http://nbr.gov.bd/contents/publication/105.pdf

symposium on Buddhism and tourism to be held in Dhaka on October

Bangladesh and UNWTO (World Tourism Organization of the United Nations) will jointly organize two international events titled ‘Symposium related to Buddhism among Asian Countries and Workshop on Buddhist Circuit in Dhaka on October, 2015.

Tourism ministers and high officials of China, Korea, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Bhutan, Nepal, Laos and India are scheduled to attend at the programs.

Secretary General of UNWTO and tourism experts from around the globe may also attend the programs.

The symposium and workshop may be arranged on October 28, 2015 in Dhaka. 

Bhutanese boulder stone gets duty-free market access to Bangladesh

The National Board of Revenue of Bangladesh provided Bhutan with duty-free market access for boulder stone export to Bangladesh.

The NBR on June 24 withdrew applicable duties on import of the product by the local importers from the Himalayan Kingdom.

Bhutan for several times in last two years expressed keen interest to supply the product for the construction of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge and for that seeking duty-free market access for the product.

Before June 24, the total applicable duty on import of boulders was 54 per cent including 25 per cent customs duty, 15 per cent value-added tax, 4 per cent advance trade VAT and 4 per cent regulatory duty.

The duty-free market access for the product has been given withdrawing the same facility for import of timber and wood from the country under a bilateral arrangement.

Currently, Bhutan enjoys duty-free market access to Bangladesh for its 18 products under the bilateral arrangement while Bangladesh enjoys such facility for 90 products in export to the country.

Now import duty on timber and wood at the regular rates ranging from 10 per cent to 31.07 per cent will be applicable for the products as the revenue board excluded the names of the products from the list of 18 products through the SRO.

Earlier, Bhutan supplied boulders for the construction of the Bangabandhu Bridge over the River Jamuna.

Trade between the two countries is usually done through Burimari land port situated in Bangladesh, the nearest land port from Bhutan-India border, which is just over 70 kilometres from Burimari border.

NBR field offices to launch drives against unauthorised foreigners, their employers

The National Board of Revenue has instructed its income tax commissioners for conducting drives against unauthorised and tax evading foreigners and their employers.

The government in the budget for the current fiscal year 2015-16 restricted employment of foreigners without work permit and introduced heavy penalty and imprisonment for employers for violation of the law.

Income tax wing of the revenue board has already asked the country’s employers for not employing unauthorised foreign nationals and requested the regulators and trade bodies to take steps for ensuring the compliance of the law.

At a meeting with the commissioners on Wednesday, the revenue board chairman Md Nojibur Rahman asked the commissioners to bring to book the employers of such foreigners through imposing penalty and taking other legal actions, a commissioner who attended the meeting told New Age on Thursday.

The NBR arranged the meeting to review the revenue earnings in the last financial year and prepare strategic plans to achieve the target for the current fiscal year.

NBR members, high officials and all the 61 field level commissioners of income tax, value-added tax and customs attended the meeting.

‘The chairman instructed us to start drives as soon as possible and make the process visible by next one month,’ he said.

The commissioners were also asked to strengthen the enforcement of the tax laws through vigorous inspection, investigation, intelligence activities and conducting drives to prevent tax evasion, he added.

NBR officials said that even many legal foreigners also evaded income tax with the help of their employers.

According to the Income Tax Ordinance-1984, the taxmen can impose penalty on companies and the owners as much as 50 per cent of their total payable income tax, or Tk 5 lakh, whichever is higher, as fine for recruiting unauthorised foreign nationals.

All other tax benefits including tax holiday applicable for the companies will also be scraped for violation of the law.

According to the ordinance, the punishment for employment of a foreigner without prior approval from the Board of Investment or any other competent

authority of the government will be up to three years in jail, but not less than three months.

Though there is no official data, taxmen estimate that there are several lakhs illegal foreigners, mainly from neighbouring India, Pakistan, China and Sri Lanka, and many from African and Western countries in the country.

They are working in the readymade garment industry, buying houses, liaison offices of multinational companies, IT, different joint-venture companies and other manufacturing industries in the country.

In 2013, India’s largest circulated technology magazine Siliconindia said in a report that a total of five lakh Indians were working in Bangladesh at that time and they sent US$ 3.7 billion in remittance.

But according to the BoI, on an average around 12,000 foreign nationals receive work permits from the board every year. A few thousand more foreigners also work in the country with permission from Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and a few hundred with permission from the NGO Affairs Bureau.

See more at: http://newagebd.net/142366/nbr-field-offices-to-launch-drives-against-unauthorised-foreigners-their-employers/#sthash.jyx1xxqB.dpuf

MAKING PANGAON PORT FUNCTIONAL: Businesses demand frequent vessel movement, charge cut

Businesses and stakeholders on Thursday demanded frequent movement of container vessels between Chittagong port and the Pangaon Inland Container Terminal and lowering of rent of container vessels and port charges to make the latter functional and effective.

Conducting export and import activities through the Pangaon ICT at Keraniganj in Dhaka will not be viable for businesses, particularly from readymade garment sector, unless the issues are addressed, they said.

They also suggested the government for making the use of the terminal mandatory, along with providing incentives for some products, particularly those which are not so essential.

At a meeting with a committee of the National Board of Revenue on Pangaon port, traders and other stakeholders also requested the revenue board to put forward these issues to authorities concerned.

The revenue board formed the committee headed by its member (customs policy) Farid Uddin to identify the reasons behind practically no response of exporters and importers for using the Pangaon terminal and find out the way to make the terminal active.

The pangaon terminal has remained practically unutilised even after 20 months of its commissioning in November 2013 because of higher cost of container vessels and other port charges compared to that of Kamalapur Inland Container Depot and lack of containers and irregular schedule of vessels.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) jointly built the terminal at a cost of Tk 154 crore.

According to the Pangaon customs house, no goods have been exported through the port since its inception.

Only six vessels carrying mostly imported goods like used motor parts, assorted goods, paper board, flat rolled steel sheet, break oil, textile fabrics, non-woven fabrics , elevator lift and glassware products arrived at the port situated at Keraniganj on the bank of River Buriganga in the just concluded fiscal year.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association member Iqbal Hossain who attended the meeting told New Age that using the port would not be viable for apparel exporters unless regular movement of vessels could be ensured.

RMG exporters work on time constraints with limited lead time to complete export procedures, he said.

‘We can send the goods to shipping agencies and freight forwarders in Chittagong within a day from Dhaka by road while it may take more time if goods are sent through Pangaon,’ he said.

RMG exporters can use the port if the shipping agencies and freight forwarders come forward and the government makes the use of the port cost effective, he said.

Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association president Mahbubul Anam said that there was no alternative to making the port functional.

‘We suggested the government to ensure three things—regular and specific schedule of container vessels, making the use of the port mandatory for some products in import and export and providing incentives for the users,’ he said.

Officials of the revenue board said that they would prepare a working paper including outcome of the meeting and hold inter-ministerial meeting

with finance, shipping, commerce and other relevant ministries to solve the problems.

According to the Pangaon Customs House, traders have to bear a total cost of US$ 206.25 including vessel fare and port charges for transporting up to 15 tonnes of imported goods from Chittagong to Pangaon by rivers while it costs US$ 138.27 for transportation of the same volume of the imported goods from Chittagong to the Kamalapur ICD by railway.

The same volume of to-be-exported goods takes US$ 80.87 from Kamalapur to Chittagong by railway and US$ 206.25 from Pangaon to Chittagong by rivers, it said. Other charges are also higher at Pangaon.

http://newagebd.net/140055/making-pangaon-port-functional-businesses-demand-frequent-vessel-movement-charge-cut/#sthash.wFyiCv39.yKvPtBGW.dpuf

Corporate income tax rate in Bangladesh

Bangladesh National Parliament on June 29 approved new schedule for corporate income tax for the fiscal year 2015-2016 reducing tax burden for publicly traded commercial banks, insurance companies, financial institutions and other companies.
Corporate income tax for cigarette manufacturers listed with the countries stock market, however, has been increased.
The new corporate income tax rates became effective from July 1, 2015, first day of the July-June fiscal year.
The government reduced corporate income tax to 40 per cent from the earlier 42.5 per cent for publicly traded banks, insurance companies and other non-banking financial institutions, to 25 per cent from 27.5 per cent for publicly traded other companies, except mobile operators, cigarette manufacturers and merchant banks.
Corporate income tax rate for non-listed commercial banks remained unchanged at 42.5 per cent.
Corporate tax for listed cigarette companies has also been fixed at 45 per cent increasing from the earlier 40 per cent. Currently, only British American Tobacco Company is listed with the Bangladesh Stock Market. The tax rate for non-listed cigarette companies remained unchanged at 45 per cent.
In addition, all kinds of taxpayers including individuals will also have to pay income tax at the rate of 45 per cent on their income from cigarette manufacturing sector.
Minimum turnover tax, irrespective of profit or loss, for companies for first three years of commencement of commercial operation has been set at 0.10 per cent from the current 0.30 per cent.
The tax rates for publicly traded mobile operators at 40 per cent, for non-listed mobile operators at 45 per cent, for merchant banks at 37.5 per cent and for other non-listed companies at 35 per cent remained unchanged.
Currently, out of six mobile operators, only Grameenphone, a sister concern of Norway-based Telenor Group, is listed with the stock exchanges in the country.

No source tax on import of edible oil, rice, wheat, sugar: Bangladesh finance minister

Bangladesh finance minister Abdul Maal Abdul Muhith on June 15 made a correction to the budget document placed before the parliament on June 4 for the fiscal year 2015-2016 and said that the proposed tax at source on import of edible oil (both raw and refined), rice, broken rice, dried chilli, oil seed, wheat and sugar, both raw and refined, would not applicable.

In the original budget document, he proposed two percent source tax on import of those products earlier which were exempted from source tax.

Muhith at the parliament on June 15 termed the imposition of the tax as mistake and said that such mistakes were creating problems and instability in the domestic market.

Earlier, on June 8, the Finance Minister corrected the increase of import duty on raw and refined sugar.

In the budget document it was proposed to increase the import duty on raw sugar from Tk 2,000 to Tk 4,000 while on refined sugar to Tk 8,000 from Tk 4,500.