Handset importers want 5pc VAT rise to go
Country’s mobile phone operators on Wednesday demanded withdrawal of Tk 100 flat tax on SIM replacement proposed in the national budget for the 2014-15 financial year.
Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on June 6 placed before parliament the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. At a separate meeting mobile handset importers on Wednesday demanded that the government should withdraw 5 per cent value-added tax it increased in the proposed budget on the mobile handset import. Currently, mobile handset importers have to pay 10 per cent VAT on import.
‘We now pay the government Tk 300 tax on SIM when it is sold to a user. If a subscriber identification module gets damaged or lost, the user will require its replacement. There
is no justification for imposing tax on SIM replacement,’ AMTOB secretary general TIM Nurul Kabir said at a press briefing at the Ruposhi Bangla hotel in the city.
He said that the government should withdraw the tax on SIM and on its replacement to boost the revenue of the telecom operators that would eventually increase the government’s revenue.
‘We share our revenue with the government. If the government withdraws the tax, it will increase mobile penetration and our revenue. So the government will get higher revenue sharing,’ he said.
Robi chief operating officer Mahtab Uddin Ahmed said the government’s move to impose tax on SIM replacement was contradictory with its vision of Digital Bangladesh.
‘We have invested huge amount of money in 3G and people in the rural areas are now getting faster internet access which is helping to create a digital Bangladesh. Now if the government imposes such tax, it will hamper the growth and contradicts with its vision of creating digital Bangladesh,’ he said.
Bangladeshi Mobile Phones Importers Association said that government’s move to increase tax on mobile import would affect the low-income group of users.
‘Currently we have 100 per cent import-based market of mobile handsets. There is no assembler or manufacturer in the country at this moment. So it is hardly justified to increase tax on importers to make business field even for local assemblers and manufacturers who don’t actually exist,’ said BMPIA president Mustafa Rafiqul Islam.
BMPIA general secretary Rezwanul Haque said increasing tax on import would encourage illegal import and that would put adverse impact on the market.
‘In illegal import there will be no quality assurance which will affect the users and the government will also loss revenue,’ he said.
The country’s handset market is largely dominated by low-priced handsets which are bought by low-income group of people, he said.
Rezwanul said, ‘If the price goes up by Tk 200 or so, it will be difficult for the low-income group of people [to purchase handsets].’
-With New Age input
