No SRO without abnormal situation: Finance minister

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in his budget speech in the parliament today said that the government will avoid issuing statutory regulatory order (SRO) without any abnormal situation to bring transparency in the revenue management.

He also said this system will increase businessmen's confidence towards the government.

"The policy decision of our government is that we are against imposing tax as a burden on taxpayers in any way," the minister said.

The policy in tax collection will somewhat follow a statement by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the finance minister in the court of King Louis (XIV) of France, he added. 

"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest [number] of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing," the minister said quoting the finance minister in the court of King Louis (XIV) of France.

"The revenue management will be fully automated. We will also ensure transparency in bonded warehouse management and stop any clearance of goods through mis-declaration", he also said

"The basic principle of tax revenue collection by our government is boosting revenue mobilization not by increasing the tax rate but by widening the tax net and coverage. To do that, we will establish revenue offices in every Upazilas and Growth Centers in the country. These will have the necessary manpower and other logistics to facilitate revenue collection. I would like to inform the august House that we have not included any component in the budget of FY2019-20 that may cause a price spiral for essential commodities," he added.