Excise duty on bank accounts wont go
People having Tk 1 lakh in banks are not poor: Muhith
STAFF REPORTER
Finance minister AMA Muhith yesterday had a piece of good news for the poor when he said bank account holders having deposits of less than Tk 1 lakh per year would not have to pay excise duty on them. The excise duty will be imposed only on those who will keep over Tk. 1 lakh deposit in their bank account. But it will not apply to those who deposit lesser amounts, he said. The finance minister offered this clarification about excise duty on bank accounts, as it created panic among small account holders and drew criticism from the media after his budget proposal.
I have proposed that there would be no excise duty on bank account balances of less than Tk. 1 lakh, Muhith said at a post-budget media briefing at Dhakas Osmani Memorial Auditorium yesterday. Industries minister Amir Hossain Amu, agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury, planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, and state minister for finance and planning MA Mannan were also present at the briefing.
In his budget speech, Muhith proposed a hike in excise duty on bank accounts and airline tickets. He proposed raising the excise duty of Tk 500 to Tk 800 on accounts with balance of over Tk 1 lakh and below Tk 10 lakh.
Muhith said, I am proposing not to impose any excise duty on accounts where the balancewhether debit or creditdoes not exceed the limit of Tk. 1 lakh at any point of time during a year.
According to the finance ministers proposal, Tk. 2,500 will be imposed instead of the existing Tk. 1,500 where the balance exceeds Tk. 10 lakh but does not exceed Tk. 1 crore; Tk. 12,000 will be imposed instead of the existing Tk. 7,500 in cases where the balance exceeds Tk. 1 crore but does not exceed the limit of Tk. 5 crore; and Tk. 25,000 will be imposed, instead of the existing Tk. 15,000, where the balance exceeds Tk. 5 crore.
Responding to a question, the finance minister also hinted at a review of the interest rate of savings certificates, as the existing interest rate was higher than the bank interest rate.
The interest gap between bank deposits and the savings certificate interest rate should not be big a one. It should be very nominal, he added. He also said he will review the interest rates next month, and promised to review them every two months.
In reply to a question on the huge size of the budget, he said every budget was an ambitious one and the budget size increased year by year to set a high target. Regarding the capability required to implement the budget, Muhith asserted that the government was efficient enough to implement the big budget, although it faced a number of challenges.
He further said he always expected good performance and sought the cooperation of all sections of people to achieve the budget target. He also said he saw no weakness in the budget. The finance minister said the countrys political situation was now quite normal and the prevailing atmosphere was investment-friendly.
I think private investment should also increase from the existing 23.7 per cent, as it is the dominant 80 per cent of the countrys total economy, he added. Asked about the price hike of rice, agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury said there was no food crisis in the country but the price of rice had increased suddenly. She said she expected the price to come down soon.
The production of rice has been hampered due to a disaster in the haor areas, and that has impacted the market, the agriculture minister said.
She further said the government had floated a tender to procure rice from Vietnam. The government would also purchase rice under the G-to-G programme to tide over the present situation. The agriculture minister gave her assurance of providing relief to the victims of the haor floods until the next harvest season.
Amir Hossen Amu blamed dishonest businessmen for the hike in rice prices. He wondered why the price of the grain had risen despite its availability in the market. Asked about an injection of capital of Tk. 2,000 crore for the state-owned commercial banks, Mustafa Kamal said the government would refinance the state-owned banks because they provided services to people in remote areas and the government, too, performed several activities though them. Regarding scams in the banking sector, the finance minister said the government was trying to trying to curb irregularities. There has been no scam in the banking sector for a long time, he added.
