16% tax collection growth target worries businesses

The proposed budget has set a target of 16% growth for tax collection in the upcoming 2023-24 fiscal year. This announcement has sparked concern and worries among businesses.

Because businesses are always made the prime targets for tax collection.

I believe that tax collection as well as the size of the national budget must be increased to achieve the goals or visions of the government to reach a trillion-dollar economy.

To do so, structural reformation and capacity building of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and other organisations responsible for tax collection are crucial.

Expanding the tax coverage across new sectors would help distribute the tax burden more evenly, ensuring that it is not disproportionately shouldered by a few businesses. We have been recommending this for a long time.

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industries (FBCCI) thanked the finance minister as he proposed increasing the tax-free income threshold to Tk3.5 lakh from the existing Tk3 lakh for individual taxpayers.

It would be better if the limit was set to at least Tk4 lakh, considering the growing inflation rate in the last two years.

Md Jashim Uddin is the president of FBCCI