Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday said that the budget for the next fiscal year would be placed in Parliament on June 13. Citing some facts and figures he claimed that Bangladesh's tax revenue to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the world.

The finance minister said, “We need to increase the ratio because of the rising growth. Despite global recession, Bangladesh has been able to achieve over a 7 per cent growth rate in the last 10 years.”

He also said that the new Value Added Tax (VAT) law will come into effect from the first of July in the next fiscal year with three different VAT rates.

“We’ll implement the VAT law from the first of July. There are likely to be three different VAT rates of 5 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 10 per cent,” he said.

Kamal said this while giving his introductory remarks at a view-exchange meeting with the private sector regarding VAT and other contemporary issues held at the NEC-2 Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area this afternoon. The Prime Minister's adviser on private industry and Investment, Salman F Rahman, National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman Md Mosharraf Hussain Bhuiyan, finance secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder, FBCCI president Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, FBCCI senior vice-president Sheikh Fazle Fahim and other business leaders were present.

After the meeting, Kamal told reporters that the business community has agreed in principle on the three new VAT rates. He further said the next budget would not contain anything to affect businessmen. Kamal also said Bangladesh would attract more investment soon as the government is putting special focus on infrastructure development.

NBR chairman Md Mosharraf Hussain Bhuiyan said the VAT exemption threshold would be raised from the present Tk. 36 lakh, while the turnover tax would be rationalised so that the business community feels more encouraged to pay VAT.

Earlier in his introductory speech, Kamal mentioned that the government does not want to make any delay regarding implementation of the new VAT law, adding that the government rather wants to implement the new VAT law with full cooperation of businessmen and stakeholders. He assured all businessmen that the government would implement the VAT law in a transparent way without harassing them.