Finance bill 2022 passed with limits on proposal to whiten black money

The parliament has passed the finance bill 2022 with a surprise late change to the proposal on repatriation of money laundered abroad, UNB reports.

The opportunity in the proposed budget to bring back both movable and immovable assets has been cancelled through an amendment on the Finance Bill-2022 by the members of parliament.

Speaker of parliament Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury chaired the session, and finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal brought these amendments to the proposed budget. Later, the parliament passed the bill by voice vote.

The finance minister accepted 17 amendment proposals on the finance bill at section 2-ka and 2-kha.

The other amendment proposals were cancelled by voice vote.

“Among the amendments brought in the proposed budget is that only smuggled cash can be brought into the country with a 7 per cent tax. Those who do not take this opportunity will be fined. The amount of the fine will be equal to the prescribed tax,” Kamal said in the parliament.

The opportunity in the proposed budget to bring in movable and immovable assets has been cancelled. At the same time, amendments have been made to get corporate tax benefits at a lower rate.

Companies that transact more than Tk 3.6 million a year through banks will get the benefit of paying corporate tax at a lower rate. In the proposed budget this limit was Tk 1.2 million.

In addition, the obligation to file returns by adding e-TIN (Taxpayer's Identification Number) for all the services has also been waived. The return filing has been made mandatory only for individual taxpayers.

Along with the finance bill 2022, the parliament has also passed the national budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 of Tk 6,780,640 million, which was placed in the parliament on 9 June.

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presented the budget titled “Return to the Path of Development; Leaving the Covid-19 Behind”.

This is the fourth budget of the third consecutive term of the government led by prime minister Sheikh Hasina and also the overall 51st budget of the country.

The budget kept the GDP growth target of 7.5 per cent and the GDP size estimated at Tk 44.5 trillion.

The revenue target is set at Tk 4.33 trillion, while the budget deficit is Tk 2.42 trillion or 5.4 per cent of GDP. The average inflation in the budget was kept at 5.6 per cent.