The Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) has sought tax exemption on the earnings of information technology and information technology enabled services (ITES) companies until 2024.
The association made the demand at a pre-budget meeting of FY 2019-20 with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Wednesday.
NBR Chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan presided over the meeting while Vice President (Finance) of BASIS Mushfiqur Rahman presented the budget proposal on behalf of BASIS.
The BASIS vice president also alleged that they have to face difficulties in collecting tax exemption certificate and it takes up to 2-3 months to get the certificate.
Mushfiqur Rahman proposed inclusion of some new services; such as , IT training, annual software maintenance contacts, audit services; in the definition of ITES.
BASIS proposed NBR to regulate digital marketing payment system, banking and payment channel in a easier way, adding that the process of monitoring has been proposed in BASIS Digital Marketing Payment Proposal.
In response, NBR chairman assured to issue the tax exemption certificate for at least 3 years at a time, instead of 1 year only.
He also agreed on the issue of implementing digital marketing payment policy.
Regarding inclusion of some new services in the definition of ITES, NBR chairman asked BASIS to submit a complete definition of ITES to NBR vetted by the ICT Division.
