MCCI for corporate tax reduction in line with neighbouring nations

The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) has urged the authorities concerned to set the corporate tax rates in Bangladesh in line with regional competitor countries.

Although the governemnt has been reducing corporate tax rates over the past two years, it is still higher than neighbouring India and Vietnam, MCCI said during a pre-budget discussion at the NBR Building in Dhaka's Segunbagicha on Wednesday.

The discussion was organized by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) with the budget for the financial year 2022-23 in mind.

NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem chaired the discussion.

Addressing the event MCCI President Saiful Islam said that the corporate tax rate has been brought down to 5% in the past two years. 

"However, the figure rate is still very high in our country. Hopefully, in the future, this will be brought on par with the neighboring countries."

"Here [in Bangladesh] disallowed expenditure as well as tax deduction at source (TDS) is so high that traders are not receiving the benefits of the 5% tax cut. In the case of public limited companies, the corporate tax rate is 22.5%, but in some cases it ranges from 40-50%," he added.

Meanwhile, the NBR chairman observed that there were still valid reasons to reduce the current corporate tax rate.

However, he said that such a decision could not be taken considering the risks surrounding revenue collection. 
During today's discussion, MCCI made several proposals and suggestions on the existing structure of income tax, VAT, and other duties.

Apart from MCCI leaders, senior NBR officials were also present at the programme.