Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has proposed increasing the income tax for fish and poultry hatchery farmers with the introduction of a new tax slab for them.

The minister wants to impose tax at 10 per cent on incomes of over Tk 20 lakh and also wants to introduce a 15 per cent tax on incomes of over Tk 30 lakh, up from the present 10 per cent.

"We, the Bengalis, live on fish and rice. Hence, with a view to promoting fish farming, this sector has long been enjoying the reduced tax rate facility," the minister said in his budget speech today.

"Keeping this privilege in place, I propose to rationalise the existing tax rate and introduce only one additional slab of tax on income from fisheries exceeding a certain limit."

Up until now, incomes of up to Tk 10 lakh from fishery, shrimp and poultry hatchery and fish farming had been tax-free.

Only 5 per cent tax is payable on the next Tk 10 lakh in income. On annual incomes of over Tk 20 lakh, only 10 per cent is payable as tax, whereas the highest rate of tax for an individual is 25 per cent.