15pc tax proposed to whiten black money

Finance minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on Thursday proposed a flat 15 per cent of tax to legalise undisclosed income and assets.

“According to the proposed provisions, no authority can raise any question if a taxpayer pays fixed tax rates for immovable properties like flats, apartments and land and 15 per cent tax on other resources including cash, irrespective of the existing laws of the country,” he added.

Finance minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali made the announcement while unveiling the national budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 in the parliament on Thursday.

It is the maiden budget of incumbent finance minister AH Mahmood Ali and the first budget of the Awami League government's 6th term.

He said, “It is necessary to keep the country's economy dynamic in the changing economic situation due to the ongoing global crisis. In order to generate and sustain effective demand in the economy, we need to provide more revenue on the one hand to generate sufficient public spending and on the other hand to keep the economic activity dynamic in the private sector."

“Incidentally, the introduction of Data Verification System (DVS) has created legal complications in the disclosure of undisclosed income and assets of various companies. Moreover, due to unavoidable reasons including ignorance of the taxpayer in filing the return, there may be errors in showing the acquired assets," he pointed out.

Mahmood Ali said, “In this situation, I propose to add a clause on tax incentives in the Income Tax Act with a view to providing taxpayers with an opportunity to correct this error in their income tax returns and to increase the flow of money into the mainstream of the economy."