Aims to prevent smuggling of the precious metal to India
The National Board of Revenue is going to increase duty on import of each 11.66 grams or one bhari of gold bar under baggage rules to Tk 3,300 from the existing Tk 150, officials said.
They said that the initiative was taken to prevent smuggling of legally imported gold to neighbouring India from Bangladesh. A very low gold import duty compared to that in India encourages smugglers to import gold to Bangladesh and then smuggle it out to India, NBR officials said.
They said that gold bar import under baggage rules had jumped in the past few months as customs officials went tough against smuggling.
They feared that imported gold could be smuggled out to India, causing loss of huge amount of foreign currencies.
The latest statistics available with the Dhaka customs showed that only in April, passengers brought 660 kilograms of gold bar under baggage rules whereas the quantity was only 1.86 kilograms in July 2013.
Under the baggage rules, a passenger can bring in 200 grams of gold bar by paying Tk 150 as tax for each 11.66 grams (one bhari) and 200 grams of gold ornaments without paying any tax.
Passengers now need to pay only Tk 1,290 to bring in 100 grams of gold bar while in India the duty is Tk 32,838 for the import of the same quantity of gold.
The customs wing of the NBR has recently sent a summery to the finance minister, AMA Muhith, in connection with the duty hike, revenue board officials said adding that the NBR would issue a statutory regulatory order in this regard after getting approval from the minister.
The government is also considering reducing the corporate tax rate slightly in the higher slabs, officials said.
After holding a meeting with the NBR officials on budget preparation on Wednesday, Muhith also told reporters that they were reviewing the existing corporate tax rates as a budget exercise for the upcoming fiscal year.
The minister, however, declined to make further comment on it.
NBR officials said that the finance minister and the NBR drafted the changes related to income tax, value-added tax and customs duty to be brought in the budget for the next fiscal year 2014-15.
The revenue board will placed their budget proposals to the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, at meetings on Saturday and Sunday, a high NBR official told New Age.
He said that the proposals would be finalised following the instructions to be given by the prime minister at the meetings.
-With New Age input
