Representatives of the country’s mobile operators held a pre-budget meeting with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Sunday (March 12). In the meeting, the representatives of AMTOB, the organization of mobile operators, presented 16 points of proposals regarding income tax, value added tax, import duty and supplementary duty related to telecom.
In this context, the Secretary General of the organization, Brigadier General (retd.) SM Farhad said that the mobile sector is one of the sectors that provide the most revenue to the government in Bangladesh. From the main source of people’s telecommunication and internet access to banking, mobile money, ride sharing, e-commerce, education, or e-courier, all sectors are directly or indirectly dependent on mobile. Still it is seen that the government is imposing new taxes every year in this sector. If the growth of the mobile sector is not encouraged by rationally considering the taxation system of the mobile sector, it will have an impact on all other sectors.
He further said, we humbly request the government to consider the proposals raised by us. As the mobile service providers grow, the customers will get better service and the government will get more revenue.
Among the proposals put forward by AMTOB are – removal or reduction of minimum tax, reduction of high rate of corporate tax, adjustment of minimum tax and deduction as unadjusted figure, adjustment of capital allowance or depreciation allowance, implementation of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), all SIMs including e-SIMs. Removal of VAT on supplies, removal of VAT by government regulatory bodies, VAT registration by government, semi-government and regulatory bodies, recommendation of separate HS codes for telecom machinery, equipment and software.
