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NBR yet to realise green tax from polluting industries

UNB, Dhaka
Although seven months of the current fiscal year have already passed, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has not yet taken any effective step to realise one percent surcharge or green tax from industries and factories polluting the environment.
The system of paying "green tax" was supposed to come into effect from July 1, 2014 as the government introduced the tax in the budget for the current fiscal year. As per law, companies polluting the environment have to pay one percent surcharge on the cost price of their goods.
The VAT wing was to collect the one percent surcharge under the "Environment Protection Surcharge Collection Rules 2014". The amount of surcharge would be non-tax revenue that the government will spend on protection of the environment.
The government has decided to impose the one percent "Environment Protection Surcharge" or "green tax" on ad-valorem basis on all kinds of products manufactured in Bangladesh by the industries which pollute the environment, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said in his budget speech.
A total of 760 industries in Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna have been short-listed, from 2,500 selected earlier, to be penalised with green tax for polluting the
environment, a senior NBR official told the news agency.
"We have sent a list of polluting industries to the NBR," said Md Raisul Alam Mondal, director general of the Department of Environment (DoE).
The NBR has to publish a gazette with the names of the selected industries for realising green tax.
Talking to the news agency, another NBR official said they are taking time to examine and re-examine the names of the industries.
He said companies like brickfields, polluting hospitals and other companies would be out of the list as the existing law
does not define these as industries.
According to sources at the finance ministry, the government is thinking about the image of the country's export products before making the names of these polluting industries or factories public as many exporters have requested the government to be cautious over selecting the names of the industries and take into consideration the sustainability of their business.
The NBR has prepared the list of the polluting industries in three categories with the industries in Dhaka falling in the first category, while those in Chittagong and Khulna in the second category and those in other divisional headquarters in the third category.