Dhaka – The BNP on Sunday demanded of the government for withdrawal of excise duty on bank accounts and reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) to a tolerable level in the proposed budget for 2017-18 fiscal year.“We demand with withdrawal of excise duty on bank accounts and reduction of proposed VAT ceiling on different essential commodities from 15 per cent to a tolerable level for the consumers,” said BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at a press conference at chairperson’s Gulshan office.
The BNP’s demands came while the party made its formal reaction 10 days after submission of the national budget in Parliament by Minister for Finance AMA Muhith.
“With placing of the proposed budget, we have been stunned, aggrieved and frustrated… The budget is for making people fools, it is a budget of deception,” he said.
Terming imposing additional excise duty on bank accounts illegal and immoral, the BNP leader said with deducing interest rate and imposing additional excise duty the depositors have become worried as where they would go.
“We demand cancellation of imposing illegal and immoral and additional excise duty on back deposit and want complete modifying the banking system,” he said.
Mirza Alamgir said the 15 per cent VAT proposed in the budget is the highest among South and South-East Asian countries.
He mentioned that India realizes 12.5 per cent of VAT while Nepal 13 per cent, Maldives 6 per cent in everywhere except 12 per cent in tourism sectors. Besides, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar realize 10 per cent of VAT.
The high rate of VAT will increase essential commodities, create pressure on inflation, increase life expenditure and specially it would increase sufferings of middle income, lower income and poor people, he apprehended.
Criticizing the big size budget which is 17 per cent bigger then the current budget, he said only a big size budget cannot be considered as a good budget.
He termed the budget a publicity-stunt one, he said though it is a largest ever budget in size it could not be implemented.
Based on our past experiences, we can say the budget is not implementable. It is unrealistic and based on imagination, he said.
Mirza Alamgir also termed it budget of deprivation and said it is not acceptable to the people.
What does it mean by placing an enormous budget of Tk 400,266 crore showing a deficit of Tk 112,275 crore. Indeed, it is nothing but a big size publicity-stunt budget, he said.
He said the government that has no accountability to the people placed such budget of deprivation and it is not acceptable to the people.
Standing committee members—Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan and Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, among others, were present on the occasion. – Staff Reporter
