'Investigate sources of political parties' income'

At a press conference at the National Press Club in the city, the samity leaders said the political parties are spending lots of money without any accountability and transparency.

They said if the government takes stern measures against corrupt lawmakers, businessmen and other professionals, it would increase revenue as well as transparency in governance.

The speakers demanded appointment of tax ombudsman and transfer of the Tax Appellate Tribunal to law ministry from the finance ministry.

They also urged the government to cancel the GP rate system that tends to harass taxpayers.

"As there is no fixed procedure to enforce GP rate, the newspaper industries are also suffering from the system. Taxes worth lakhs of taka have been fixed against a few newspapers while some of them don't need to pay any tax irrespective of their circulation," they added.

Criticising the provision of turning black money into white the speakers said if a person pays 7.5 percent tax against his black money, it would be considered as white money.

This amount of tax is so small that the regular taxpayers feel discouraged in paying their tax, they added.

The speakers suggested proper co-ordination between value added tax (Vat) and income tax, media publicity on income tax payment and providing incentives to those who pay minimum Tk 20,000 in income tax regularly.

Presided over by Samity President Zakir Hossain, the press conference was attended by its Vice-president MA Halim, Secretary General Abdul Aziz Sarkar, members Advocate Kanika Mahfuz Ara and Advocate Shahidullah.