The Finance Bill-2013 has been passed in Parliament with the scrapping of the ‘special facility’ to invest undisclosed income in real estate through land purchase
Several amendments to the Bill were also passed in Saturday’s session with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.
In his concluding speech in Parliament on the proposed budget for 2013-14 fiscal, Finance Minister AMA Muhith scrapped the proposal to allow purchase of land with undisclosed income by paying a 10 percent fine.
“It was proposed in the Finance Bill-2013 to consider investment of undisclosed income in purchasing land by paying a 10 percent tax. But this facility in this sector will raise the price of land and it will be a waste of money in an unproductive sector,” he said.
“The Prime Minister had suggested scrapping the proposal in a bid to discourage investment of undisclosed income. I am cancelling this proposal,” he added.
In his budget speech on June 6, Muhith had said that the ‘special facility’ to legalise undisclosed income through purchase of plots and flats was being suggested to tackle last year’s ‘crisis’ in the real estate sector.
The minister on Saturday also proposed hiking the import duty on newsprint to 10 percent from 3 percent.
The proposed budget for 2013-14 fiscal had suggested increasing the import duty by 25 percent.
“Following the Prime Minister’s recommendation, I propose to import newsprint by paying 10 percent duty instead of the regular 25 percent and 5 percent supplementary duty.”
The 2 percent import duty on printing plates for the printing press was reinstated by scrapping the proposal for hiking the tax by 9 percent.
Source: bdnews24
