ZCZC
BSS-16
KAMAL-NBR-MEETING
Kamal hopeful of achieving fiscal target of revenue collection
DHAKA, Feb 7, 2019 (BSS) – Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today
expressed his hope for achieving the revenue collection target by the
National Board of Revenue (NBR) in the current fiscal year through boosting a
win-win situation with the private sector.
“Our revenue board is working to materialize a Tk 2,96,201 crore target in
the current fiscal year and I believe we’ll be able to attain that target in
full scale the way we have attained in the past,” he told reporters.
The Finance Minister was briefing reporters after holding a meeting with
the leaders of top trade bodies and business leaders at the NEC Conference
Room in city’s Sher-e-Bangla Bangla Nagar area.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s adviser on private industry and investment
Salman F Rahman, Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir, The National Board of
Revenue (NBR) Chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, Finance Division Secretary
Abdur Rouf Talukder, Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development
Authority (BIDA) Kazi Aminul Islam, FBCCI President Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin
and business leaders of various trade bodies and associations attended the
meeting.
Mentioning that the aim of the present government is to boost revenue
collection without putting added pressure and without harassing others,
Mustafa Kamal said that the demand of the government has increased a lot and
it will increase day by day.
“We’ve no other alternative in this regard except boosting the revenue
collection …. we’ve assured the private sector and the businessmen that
we’ll address their issues and problems, but they would also have to help us
in fulfilling our revenue target,” he added.
The Finance Minister said they held the meeting to forge a win-win
situation between the public and the private sector adding that the meeting
was very much fruitful and successful.
He said that they have taken note of the problems and issues raised by the
private sector and assured them of accommodating those.
Kamal said that the government would adopt a bottom-up approach for
collecting revenue as the NBR in the coming days would work out a plan and
thus inform the Ministry as to how much they would be able to collect revenue
in a year.
“For that we’ll enhance the manpower of NBR and provide necessary
equipments ……we’ll set up revenue offices in all the 492 upazilas and
collect VAT through providing machines,” he added.
He said that the revenue growth over the last 10 years witnessed 19
percent growth on average.
Asked about the recent decision for easing write off rules to reduce loan
defaulters, he said that write off is a part of the system itself and it
should continue. “Many countries in the world like India and Malaysia do such
practice ……I reiterate my stance that the honest businessmen will get
facilities while the dishonest businessmen won’t get it.”
The Finance Minister said he would stick to his earlier decision that the
Non Performing Loan (NPL) would not increase further. “We’ll surely reduce
that otherwise the banking sector will be weakened,” he added.
When asked about the ease of doing business, he said that the government
is trying hard to address the deviations towards improving the ease of doing
business.
The Finance Minister said that during the meeting the business leaders
highlighted a couple of issues before him like high bank interest rates, high
tax rates and rising trend of NPL, some issues related to customs and VAT,
capital market as well as some sector-based problems in steel, cement,
leather, jute, ICT and the pharmaceuticals sector.
“They (business leaders) have highlighted their issues and problems in a
justified way and I have assured them of looking into their matter,” added
Kamal.
Stressing the importance of the private sector, which accounts for 80 to
82 percent of the country’s economy, he said there is no alternative to it to
move the country forward.
Mentioning that there are some challenges before the private sector in the
coming days, Kamal said that they want to face these challenges with iron
hand while the country would move forward with the united efforts of all.
He also underscored the need for bringing in newer ideas to address the
contemporary demands of the country.
Salman F Rahman said the country has attained unimaginable successes over
the last 10 years under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina.
“The Prime Minister has already said that we’ll have to go to the next
level. But, it will be a bit tough to go to the next level. The private
sector is the main driving force towards the country’s development,” he
added.
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