Prices of cigarette, cosmetics, imported onion, imported chicken, ceramic sink, AC installation fare, furniture mobile phone bill, bidis, cigarettes, jorda and tobacco products have been increased in the proposed budget of FY 2020-21.
Fares have also been increased for chartered planes and helicopters, mobile phones, private car registration fees, mobile internet services and the cost of talk time.
The cost of the locally manufactured cosmetics will go up as the Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed the increase on supplementary duty by five percent.
Mobile phone users will have to pay higher bills as supplementary duty is set to increase to 15 percent from the existing 10 percent in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2020-21.
With the new tax ratio, customers will have to pay 33.25 percent tax to the government for mobile phone use.
Therefore, to avail a service worth Tk 100, users will have to recharge Tk 133.25. Or against each Tk 100 recharge, a user will get services worth Tk 75.05.
Currently, mobile phone users have to pay 15 percent value added tax (VAT), 10 percent supplementary duty and one percent surcharge on their phone call, internet and others usage bills.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal declared that the proposed budget of FY 2020-21 will prioritise health, agriculture, social safety net and job creation for recovering from the current economic crisis.
During his speech in Parliament, the minister said that the health sector has been given the highest priority, and provisions have been made in the form of additional allocation, incentives, compensations, etc.
After the health sector, the second-highest priority has been placed on agriculture. To boost food production, the finance minister proposed to lay emphasis on farm mechanisation, incentives for irrigation and seeds and rehabilitation of agriculture, and continue to provide subsidies on fertilizers.
The finance minister also proposed to expand the coverage of social safety net programmes to reduce hardships of the poor working people due to long general holidays and lockdowns amid the coronavirus pandemic as the third-highest priority.
The economic recovery packages declared so far have totaled Tk. 1,03,117 crore, said the Finance Minister. Amid this unprecedented global crisis, the Finance Minister said Prime Minister has announced a number of stimulus packages totaling over Tk. 1 lakh crore to stand by the poor and helpless people, to keep up the momentum in economic activities, and bring back the trend in growth and development.
