13th April 2013, Civil society organizations in Chittagong urge the government to reduce the burden of VAT which fall heavily on the poor and demand to give more priority on the direct taxes from people who can afford it.
A seminar held in the Press Club in Chittagong
on Saturday, 13th April 2013 at 11.00 in the morning was jointly organized by Shangshaptak, Nawjowan and Equitybd.The speakers at the seminar said, VAT is regressive especially for the poor and instead direct taxes should be prioritized in order to maximize the internal resource of the country.
The objective of the seminar was to bring out the valuable opinion of the citizen on the VAT act 2012 and building up a progressive tax system for the country for patronizing a balanced economic and social development in future.
The speakers said in the seminar, only 2 million people have tax certificate out of the 160 million of population. And only 8% of the certified people pay tax properly. On the other hand, poor people in general are being forced to pay vat and taxes upon every item they buy from the market.
The seminar was moderated by Mr. Ali Haidar, the Chittagong Bureau Chief of the Daily Banik Barta. Among the distinguished speakers Mr. M Nasirul Huq, the City Editor of the Daily Suprobhat, Mr. Mazharul Huq, the former Parliament Member, Mr. Advocate M A Hashem, the Public Prosecutor of Chittagong, Mr. Tapan Dutta, the president of Trade Union Kendra, Ms. Anjuman Ara, the Counselor of Chittagong City Corporation, Ms. Abida Azad, Counselor of Chittagong City Corporation and former leader of teachers Mr. M A Ohab gave their speech in the seminar.
Mr. Sourav Barua of Shangshaptak gave the opening speech and Mr. Imam Hossain of Nawjowan drew the closing mark. Mr. Ahsanul Karim Babor the representative of EquityBD presented the main article while Mr. Mustafa Kamal Akanda of EquityBD presented the objectives and perspective of the seminar.
The Speakers said, this vat is imposed on the people in order to meet the conditionality of IMF loan to the country and its objective is to impose vat on all sorts of commodities and services which promotes the neo-liberal globalized and anti-people economy.
please download [Press Release_bangla]
