Imposed tax, VAT will hike public suffering: Mirza Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has expressed concern over the increase in VAT and supplementary duty on more than 100 new products and services amid rising prices of daily essentials and inflation.

Urging the interim government to reduce expenses and find alternative revenue sources instead of raising taxes in the current fragile economic condition, the BNP Secretary General said: “In the current situation, the government should focus first on reducing expenses. If the government reviews its development budget and eliminates unnecessary and financially unjustifiable projects, it could cut around 20% of expenses, saving up to 60,000 crore taka.”

The senior BNP leader made the call at a press conference at the office of the BNP Chairperson in the capital’s Gulshan on Saturday (January 18).

Mirza Fakhrul said, “We are observing that the interim government has imposed VAT and supplementary duties on more than 100 products amid ongoing economic instability and high inflation. This decision will have a negative economic impact on the daily lives of the general people, especially the poor and middle class.”

In addition to cost reduction, Mirza Fakhrul advised the government to explore new sources and methods of revenue.

He proposed that instead of increasing VAT rates, the government could broaden the scope of VAT.