Former Director of FBCCI and Convener of the Committee to Prevent Discriminatory Tax Increases, Mr. Shahidul Haque Mollah, led a group of leaders from 9 (nine) organizations who met with Administrator Mr. Md. Hafizur Rahman at the FBCCI office on Thursday (January 30, 2025) afternoon.
At this time, the traders said that in the middle of 2024-2025, the government has published a gazette increasing the value added tax (VAT) and supplementary duty on more than a hundred products, including agricultural machinery parts. This high VAT increase without any discussion with the business partners is worrying. If the price of agricultural machinery parts increases due to the imposition of high VAT, it will have an impact on the consumer level.
At this time, they demanded that the government bring the interest rate on bank loans to single digits as before, keep the supply of foreign currency normal and the exchange rate stable, and increase the capacity of ports.
The demands and recommendations of the traders will be presented to the appropriate authorities of the government, said FBCCI Administrator Mr. Md. Hafizur Rahman.
Former Vice President of FBCCI Mr. Mir Nizam Uddin Ahmed, Mr. Nizam Uddin Rajesh, former Director Mr. Gias Uddin Chowdhury (Khokon), Member Secretary of the Committee to Prevent Discriminatory Tax Increase Mr. Shahidul Islam Swapan, representatives of Bangladesh Electrical Association, Bangladesh Agriculture Machinery Merchant Association, Bangladesh Pipe and Tubewell Merchant Association, Bangladesh Hardware and Machinery Merchants Association, Bangladesh Electrical Motor Pump Importers Association, Fire Fighting Equipment Business Owners Association of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bearing Merchant Association, Nawabpur Shop Owners Association and Bangladesh Electric Three-Wheeler Manufacturers and Merchants Association were present at the meeting.
