FY 21 budget livelihood and development friendly: CCCI President

The Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCCI) president Mahbubul Alam has termed FY 2020-21 budget as livelihood and development friendly.

He said the budget, proposed amid the Covid-19 situation, is a budget for life and livelihood, business-friendly and people-friendly, which will help restore the trend of economic development of the country.

The proposed budget will give impetus to the economy in the current situation, he added.

Mahbubul Alam said the allocation of Tk29,247 crore for the health sector, Tk29,983 crore in the agriculture sector and Tk95,474 crore in the social security sector is quite positive, however, it is of utmost importance to ensure honesty, transparency and efficiency in budget implementation, he added.

Mahbubul Alam said source tax on supply of essential commodities like rice, flour, potato, onion, garlic, sugar etc, and advance income tax on import of garlic and sugar has been fixed from five percent to two percent.

The advance tax on import of raw materials used in production has also been reduced from five percent to two percent, which will reduce the price of these products and benefit the common man.

Construction of 51 percent of a 3.32-km-long tunnel at the bottom of Karnafuli river has been completed. Besides, it was mentioned in the proposed budget that a double-track high-speed railway line will be implemented from Dhaka to Chittagong via Comilla and Laksam.

We demand speedy implementation of new container terminals, overflow yards, bay terminals and bulk terminals construction proposed to increase the cargo handling capacity of seaports, he said.

Mahbubul Alam said the implementation of 10 percent tax on the income tax returns of individual taxpayers from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, on undisclosed land, buildings, flats and apartments at a fixed rate, and cash, bank deposits, savings, shares, bonds, securities and investments in the capital market, undisclosed money will be added to the mainstream of the economy and the liquidity crisis will be solved.

The development of the domestic industry will take place as the advance tax on import of raw materials for local manufacturing industries has been reduced from four percent to two percent and the concession period has been increased from two to four years.

The allocation of Tk10,000 crore proposed to tackle Covid-19 will play a very important role to counter the virus.