Newspaper owners on Wednesday proposed the government to keep the print media out of tax net considering it a "sick" industry, which would perish gradually with the expansion of digital media.
The leaders of the Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) said the government should consider withdrawal of 5.0 per cent customs duty on the import of newsprint, 15 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) and 35 per cent corporate tax on the newspaper industry.
Both owners of the print and electronic media suggested that the National Board of Revenue (NBR) consider the sector 'service-providing industry'.
The recommendations came at a pre-budget meeting with the NBR in Dhaka for Fiscal Year 2018-19. NBR chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan chaired the meeting.
The leaders also said that the pre-budget proposals by the media owners remained mostly unimplemented in the budget every year.
Matiur Rahman, editor of the Daily Prothom Alo, suggested the NBR bring Facebook, and Youtube under a legal framework to regulate the social media.
He said the multinational companies were doing business in the country through the social media.
Responding to the proposal, the NBR chairman said the government would consider it in the upcoming budget.
Mahfuz Anam, editor of the Daily Star, proposed the NBR to rationalise the ceiling for the house rents between the wage-board and income tax law.
"The ceiling for house rent is 65 per cent in the wage board for journalists but it is 40 per cent in the income tax law," he said.
The newspaper owners have to pay tax on the 25 per cent house rent as it is not allowed as tax-exempted income as per income tax law, he said.
Responding to the proposal, the NBR chairman assured the owners that he would take steps to remove the inconsistencies in house rents.
Mr Anam also said like employees other sectors, the media people should pay their own taxes.
"Two different laws should not prevail in the country," he added. Salman F Rahman, president of the Association of Television Channel Owners (ATCO), proposed digitising the cable operations to track the users.
He also suggested the NBR offer incentives for the expansion of export market rather than focusing on only diversification.
"We would be able to operate subscription-based television channel with the digitisation. Also, the government would be able to earn revenue through this," Mozammel Babu, senior vice president of the ATCO, said.
ATCO members proposed introducing a landing fee for foreign television channels excluding sports and news channel, resolving discrimination of VAT collection process from television channels and newspapers, sought tax benefit for purchasing satellite bandwidth.
Television owners alleged that they need to entertain requests for broadcasting advertisements of the different ministries as free-of-cost on the grounds of public interest.
The NBR chairman said such practice should be stopped as nothing should be free of cost for public interest.
Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, media adviser to the Prime Minister and editor of the Daily Observer, said that the media industry deserves some special incentives as service providers.
He said that taxpayers expect incentives and benefits from the state against the payment of their taxes.
