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5-year tax holiday for new industries to continue

Staff Correspondent
The tax holiday benefits will be continued for another five years with some conditions for the newly set up industries.
According to the budget proposal, all industries set up in Dhaka and Chittagong division will be exempted from 100 percent income tax for the first two years of their establish ment, 50 percent income tax for the next two years and 25 percent income tax for the last one year.
It has also been proposed a 7-year tax exemption for the industries set up in Rajshahi, Khulna, Svlhet and Barisal divisions and three hilly districts. As per the proposal, those industrial units will enjoy 100 percent tax exemption for the first three years, 50 percent exemption for the next three years and 25 percent for the last one year;
Keeping the tax holiday intact for the sectors already enjoying such a facility, the new budget also proposed to bring some sectors like agroprocessing, diamond cutting, steel production from billet,
jute industries, different units of textile sector, underground rail, monorail, telecom infrastructure except mobile phone under the purview of tax holiday.
In the budget the government in a remarkable move proposed to waive all duties and taxes on poultry, cattle and fish feeds.
The continuation of tax exemption facilities for the farms engaged in fisheries, poultry, cattle breeding, dairy, mushroom cultivation, silk worm production, seed production, marketing of locally produced seeds and income generated from the cultivation of flowers and plants etc for another three years.
The finance adviser proposed to continue the duty exemption benefit being enjoyed by the poultry sector in case of imports of some specific items as the sector experienced a huge loss from the outbreak of bird flu this year.
A duty exemption from imports of plastic trays, used for transportation and maintenance of poultry chicks, and
nursery trays, used for seed growing, has also been proposed.
The finance adviser has also proposed to make a fiat 3 percent customs duty on the equipment used in agriculture like irrigation pumps, diesel engine and tractors from the existing various rates.
In order to flourish the housing sector, the budget proposed that any income generated from constructions of multi-storied buildings in areas outside the areas of city corporations, Cantonment Board, municipalities of district headquarters and municipal areas under Dhaka district should be kept tax-free for the next 10 years.
Pointing to the fact that the government is losing arable land every year due to the increase in construction of buildings on those lands for housing purpose, the finance adviser in his budget speech expressed his hope that the new proposal on the housing sector will help reduce the use of agricultural land for property development.
A 3-year tax rebate (from July
1,2008 to June 30, 2011) for the software sector has also been proposed.
The withdrawal of the advance income tax and value added tax for the import of Electronic Cash Registers (ECR) has been proposed in the new budget.
The government also proposed to keep the income of the SME entities free from taxes by defining the SMI' as entities having an annual turnover not exceeding I k. 2,400,000.00.
I he income from handicraft exports will also be kept outside the purview of taxes from July 1,2008 to June 30,2011, the finance adviser proposed.
The upper limit of investment in capital machinery has been proposed to increase to Tk 15 0 0,000 from Tk. 700,000.00 in order to flourish the cottage industry.
Proposals were also made to withdraw VAT at the production stage of hand made biscuits and fabrics produced from artificial fibre and thread using handloom to provide impetus to the small, labour-intensive and employmentfriendly industries.