The government is going to raise the surcharge on net assets of rich people and to increase slabs in a bid to ensure progressive taxation in the country, officials of the National Board of Revenue said. They said that finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith might propose a total of four slabs in surcharge with highest 25 per cent surcharge on the payable tax for those having net assets worth over Tk 30 crore.
The other rates of surcharge on net assets, commonly known as wealth tax, may be set at 10 per cent, 15 per cent and 20 per cent, they said.
Currently, rich people having net assets worth over Tk 2 crore each but less than Tk 10 crore have to pay surcharge at the rate of 10 per cent while people having assets worth over Tk 10 crore have to pay surcharge at the rate of 15 per cent on their payable income tax.
The revenue board in 2011 introduced the surcharge system to collect more tax from the richer people of the society to ensure progressive taxation under which richer people pay more tax, officials said.
In the proposal for the upcoming budget for the fiscal year of 2014-2015, the existing lowest slab and surcharge rates may be remained unchanged, they said.
The finance minister may propose surcharge at the rate of 15 per cent on payable income tax for people having assets worth over Tk 10 crore but less than Tk 20 crore, at 20 per cent for people having assets worth over Tk 20 crore but less than Tk 30 crore and at 25 per cent for those having assets worth over Tk 30 crore.
NBR officials said that the change in surcharge was made based on the recommendation of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry as the apex trade body suggested an increase in the existing slaps and tax rates.
According to the NBR statistics, the collection of wealth tax has been increasing over the last two years since its introduction in the fiscal year 2011-2012.
In the FY 2011-2012, the revenue board collected Tk 65 crore in surcharge from around 5,000 people having assets worth over Tk 2 crore each.
Revenue collection from the sector increased to Tk 101 crore in the FY 2012-2013 and to Tk 131 crore in the current fiscal year, the data showed.
The revenue board, however, has not calculated the number of people who paid surcharge in FY 2012-2013 and FY 2013-2014.
According to Income Tax Ordinance-1984, net assets are calculated by deducting total liabilities from total assets.
Total assets are calculated by taking business capital, value of the shares held by directors in limited companies, investments, prices of agricultural property, non-agricultural property such as land, house property, motor vehicles, jewellery, furniture, electronic equipments, cash asset and other assets.
Total liabilities are calculated by considering mortgages secured on property or land, unsecured loans, bank loans and others.
A research conducted for the NBR by the Economic Research Group estimated that 1.05 per cent of the current taxpayers own wealth worth Tk 2 crore or more.
Taking the number of active taxpayers as 10 lakh, the number of rich people eligible for paying wealth tax will be around 10,000, the study said.
-With New Age input
