Proposed Budget For Fy15
Trade bodies observe financing, execution key challenges
The country’s trade bodies observed that financing and implementation are two major challenges for the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2014-15.
Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in a statement said that as the government could not achieve revenue target for the current fiscal year, financing and implementation would be major challenge for the budget for the next fiscal year.
It, however, expressed its happiness as communication and transport sector has been given the largest share in the budget.
The MCCI welcomed the budget proposal to reduce the corporate tax rate for non-publicly traded company which was a long-standing demand of the chamber.
The trade body stressed on to strengthen the monitoring and implementation mechanism to achieve the proposed ambitious growth in the economy.
The MCCI expressed its disappointment that the proposed budget allows whitening of undisclosed income that may discourage the honest taxpayers from paying tax.
The chamber welcomed the proposed step for automation of government administration, thereby improving efficiency, transparency and service delivery.
Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said that financing would be one of the key challenges for the proposed budget.
‘But it is true that the government has framed the budget with the aim of improving the economic condition of the country as well as the people.’
The FBCCI president on Thursday night told reporters that many positive decisions for the business sector had been taken in the budget and the measures would attract investment.
Terming the proposed budget business-friendly, Akram said that the government would have to ensure that the bank borrowing for deficit financing would not hamper the business people.
Bangladesh Chamber of Industries hoped that the proposed budget would be helpful for attracting new investment and industrialisation.
Some proposals in the budget are encouraging for manufacturing sector and it will encourage the export-oriented sectors, the BCI said in a news release.
The chamber, however, said that the dependency on bank borrowing for deficit financing might be a barrier to investment in the private sector.
Bangladesh Textile Mills Association termed the budget industry- and investment-friendly.
BTMA president Jahangir Alamin in a news release demanded duty weaver for some specific raw materials used in textile industry including pet chips, synthetic filament tow, lyocell fibre and flux fibre to keep the sector competitive.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association on Thursday termed the proposed budget as investment-friendly and people welfare-oriented.
‘The budget would help develop the country’s garment industry,’ the BGMEA president Atiqul Islam said in a news release.
Duty-free import facility of prefabricated building materials and fire equipments, reduction in tax at source on cash incentives will strengthen the garment sector, he said.
-With New Age input
