The National Board of Revenue (NBR) yesterday said there was no scope to reduce corporate or individual tax rates in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, a stance that businesses opposed.

"Rather, we want a non-discriminatory tax regime for all sectors.”

The National Board of Revenue will likely propose reducing the tax on corporate profits by 2.5 percentage points for both listed and non-listed companies.

Stock market intermediaries yesterday urged the government to widen the corporate tax rate gap between listed and non-listed companies to encourage more companies to go public. 

The government wants to keep the corporate tax rates unchanged for all sectors for the fiscal year 2023-24, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today.

High corporate taxes on banks, non-bank financial institutions, merchant banks, insurance companies and telecommunication companies are not logical as their profit is not high compared to capital, said Shahidul Islam, chief executive officer of VIPB Asset Management Company.

Corporate income tax is an important source of government revenue, especially in low and middle-income countries. However, effective tax rates are often far below statutory rates due to generous tax incentives provided to attract investments. These incentives include tax credits, income exemptions, and reduced rates.

Although the corporate tax levied on listed firms is lower than that of their non-listed counterparts, many companies in Bangladesh lack interest in joining the stock market as they want to avoid the obligation of ensuring good corporate governance, regularly disclosing financial information and complying with other rules.

Editors yesterday urged the government to bring down the corporate tax for newspapers to 10-15 per cent from the fiscal year of 2022-23 to help the print media survive amid rising costs.