Boarders at the hotels in the city corporation areas will have to pay up to 5 per cent additional tax along with the rent and the value-added tax.
The government is going to introduce ‘city tax’ for boarders at the hotels in the city corporation areas, high officials of the Dhaka city corporations said.The rate of the tax will be set on the basis of the categories of the hotels and guest houses, they said.
The local government ministry is likely to introduce the tax by amending rules under the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009 by this month, said revenue officials of the Dhaka city corporations.
They said the ministry had already given its nod to introduction of the tax.
‘Once the rules are amended, we will publish gazette notification on the revision,’ said Tajul Islam Prodhan, chief revenue officer of the Dhaka South City Corporation.
Currently boarders pay the government 15 per cent VAT imposed by the National Board of Revenue.
‘This tax is an additional one. Boarders have to pay it for using the facilities provided by the city corporations,’ said M Golam Mustafa Khan, chief revenue officer of the Dhaka North City Corporation.
‘All the developed countries impose this tax. It is nothing new,’ he said.
Tajul Islam said, ‘The city corporations proposed imposing15 per cent city tax. The ministry, however, is thinking to impose up to 5 per cent tax.’
The rate of the tax is likely to be set at 5 per cent for the five star hotel, 3 per cent for the three star hotel and 2 per cent for the below three star hotel.
As all the hotels received trade licences from the city corporations and they pay holding tax to the corporations, the
corporations will use the list in imposing and collecting the tax, the officials said.
The officials, however, said that the city corporations did not hold any
discussion with the owners of the hotels over the issue.
‘We did not sit with the hotel owners over the tax,’ said Tajul.
-With New Age input
