Finance Minister AMA Muhith today proposed to increase the VAT-free turnover ceiling to Tk 36 lakh from Tk 30 lakh in the ‘VAT and Supplementary Duty Act 2012’, which is scheduled to be implemented from July 1.

“On the basis of their [business community] recommendations I am proposing to raise the annual turnover from Tk 30 Lakh to Tk 36 Lakh,” the minister said while unveiling the country’s Tk 4,00,226 crore budget for the fiscal 2017-18.

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The firms with this annual turnover will be completely out of the scope of tax. This kind of benefit was not there in the 1991 VAT Act, he said.

“Besides, according to the desire of the business community, I am proposing before this august Parliament to raise threshold for registration under VAT from Tk 80 Lakh to 1 crore 50 Lakh,” he said in his budget speech.

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Currently under the VAT Act 1991, many small and medium businesses pay a fixed amount of VAT, known as package VAT, and they usually do not submit returns regularly, even though a section of them generate enough sales to be able to pay the turnover tax.