Bidi, cigarettes to be costlier
Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on Thursday proposed an increase of package value-added tax for all registered small shop owners.
The package VAT will be increased depending on their business locations with an annual turnover below Tk 80 lakh for the fiscal year 2013-2014, he said.The finance minister in his budget speech for the next financial year also proposed an increase of annual turnover to Tk 80 lakh from Tk 70 lakh for the small and medium enterprises.
According to the proposal, the small shop owners in the Dhaka and Chittagong city corporations will have to pay Tk 12,000 as package VAT in the FY 2013-14 as against Tk 9,000 in the ongoing fiscal year.
Package VAT for small businesses in the other city corporations will be Tk 9,000 which is now at Tk 7,200 while VAT for retailers in municipalities in the district headquarters will increase to Tk 6,000 from the existing Tk 5,400.
According to Muhith’s proposal, shopkeepers in other parts of the country will have to pay Tk 3,000 as package VAT instead of current VAT at Tk 2,700.
In the FY 2012-2013, the government had increased package VAT for small businesses by 50 per cent.
Muhith also proposed for withdrawal of VAT on poultry, dairy, fish feed, all kinds of fertiliser, insulin, insulin pen, wheelchair, hospital bed at the manufacturing level.
He also proposed to increase the existing value slabs of cigarettes from premium, medium and lower segments by 21.21 per cent, 19.32 per cent and 15.70 per cent respectively.
The finance minister also proposed to raise the price of 25 sticks of non-filter bidi to Tk 5.80 and 20 sticks of filter bidi to Tk 6.30 from the existing Tk 4.36 and Tk 4.93 respectively.
Muhith also proposed to increase investment ceiling for small and cottage industries for getting tax exemption to Tk 40 lakh from the existing Tk 25 lakh and turnover ceiling to Tk 60 lakh to Tk 40 lakh.
-With New Age input
