A group of non-government organisations have called upon the government to reconsider the budgetary allocation for people with disabilities.
Opposition lawmakers yesterday came down heavily on the government for its failure to ensure fair price of paddy and check money laundering, soaring loan defaults and black money.
The new VAT law may increase cost of many goods and services and hurt consumers, analysts said yesterday.
The budgetary measures for fiscal 2019-20 will favour the beneficiaries of “economic misrule” and hurt the middle and lower mid-income groups, the Centre for Policy Dialogue said yesterday.
Terming the proposed national budget “highly ambitious”, the BNP yesterday said the people of the country would not accept the budget as it would increase inequality.
Leading business associations yesterday urged the government to ensure easy, hassle-free and business-friendly implementation of the new VAT law.
At a time when the government should be encouraging virtual businesses, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has proposed 7.5 percent value-added tax on them in his budget for fiscal 2019-20, making their services dearer.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) yesterday strongly condemned the proposed amnesty for black money in the budget for fiscal 2019-20 and termed it “unconstitutional, immoral and discriminatory”.
THE BIG FOUR
Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) has prepared a report claiming that it has removed most of the 52 substandard food items from the market across the country and filed 52 cases against the companies concerned as per the High Court directives.
In 2010, the government decided to construct a 128-kilometre (km) metre gauge rail track to link Chattogram with tourist town Cox’s Bazar at a cost of Tk 1,852.35 crore.
Mobile phone services are likely to become costlier from today due to increased taxes. The National Board of Revenue sent a regulatory order to the mobile carries to increase the supplementary duty (SD) to 10 percent from 5 from midnight yesterday.
THE BIG FOUR
Shifting from its initial plan to slap a uniform rate, the government has finally proposed four rates of Value Added Tax to please businesspeople and take them on board to implement the new VAT law from the next fiscal year.
The government should support the garment exporters by devaluing taka against US dollar instead of giving them direct cash incentives, two economists said yesterday.
It has become a tradition for the budget to be increased every year by 17-18 percent so this year, there was no reason to expect this to change. Generally, Bangladesh’s budget has maintained a sectoral balance in its stance, giving priority to education, agriculture, infrastructure and social sector expenditures.
The cost of mobile phone usage is going up from tonight as the national board of revenue has already sent statuary regulatory order (SRO) to all mobile phone operators soon after placing the proposed national budget for 2019-20 fiscal in the parliament.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, in his budget speech, has projected the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate at 8.2 per cent in the proposed national budget for 2019-20 fiscal.
Find the pie charts for the national budget for fiscal year 2019-20 that Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has placed in the parliament.