VAT at old rate, excise duty reduces

Parliament Correspondent: Prime minister Sheikh Hasina asked Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith to fix excise duty at Tk 150 on bank deposits which will have above Tk 1,00,000 to Tk 5,00,000.

The Prime Minister made her policy statement while taking part in discussion on the proposed budget in parliament on Wednesday, in an apparent response to controversies and huge criticism from the stakeholders.

In the proposed budget, the excise duty was earlier increased to Tk 800 from TK 500 for bank deposits with above Tk 1,00,000.

Now the excise duty has been fixed at Tk 150 for bank accounts which will have above Tk 1,00,000 to Tk 5,00,000 and the excise duty fixed at TK 500 for bank accounts which will have above Tk 5,00,000 to TK 10,00,000.

At the same time, she also asked Muhith not to implement the new uniform 15% Value Added Tax (VAT) and Supplementary Duty (SD) Act 2012, which was earlier announced, from July 1, 2017 for the next two years.

risingbd/DHAKA/June 28, 2017/MA Rahman/Amirul