Considering the fallouts of the coronavirus pandemic, businesses in Bangladesh have sought tax benefits in the upcoming national budget even as they also asked to bring down the advanced tax from 5 per cent at present to its previous level of 3 per cent for all sectors.
The entrepreneurs, reportedly, made the demands while participating at a virtual media briefing on ‘National budget for 2021-22: What should be there for the disadvantaged people’ on 9 May (Sunday), organised by the Citizen Platform for SDGs.
Participating in the same, Managing Director of Apex Footwear Syed Nasim Manzur, reportedly, maintained that the European Union (EU) is the prime destination for ‘Made in Bangladesh’ apparel and leather goods and frozen food but the purchasing power of people in countries within the EU has weakened, which has led to a decline in exports, and went on to praise the reduction in the interest rates on loans, without which, Nasim felt there would have been a massive collapse in the corporate sector even as Chairman of the Chittagong Stock Exchange Asif Ibrahim, reportedly, demanded that the authorities reduce the corporate tax from 25 per cent at present to 20 per cent for listed companies in the next budget even as he maintained that small and medium enterprise (SME) sector has suffered the most in the coronavirus pandemic with a study even indicating that income fell by almost 66 per cent even as many workers were being laid off.
