ICT businesses on Sunday urged the government to allocate Tk 5.0 billion for Technical Assistance (TA) projects and Tk 2.0 billion as ICT development fund in the national budget for the fiscal year 2019-20.
A delegation of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and other business leaders placed the pre-budget proposal to Finance Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal at a meeting at the Economic Relations Division in the city on Sunday.
BASIS urged the minister to allocate the fund for the TA projects in the next budget to enhance the capacity of the local industry.
It said that the country could offer TA projects for the under-developed countries with the term that Bangladesh would provide the TA subject to implementation of the projects by the Bangladeshi ICT companies.
It will be an investment by the government, but will help highlight the Bangladeshi ICT companies' capability at home and abroad, said the association.
Besides, the association sought an allocation of Tk 2.0 billion as ICT development subsidy.
BASIS further highlighted an issue of providing the tax exemption certificate. The government announced that the ICT companies will enjoy tax exemption till 2024.
The association pointed out that every year the ICT companies have to get the exemption certificate from the National Board of Revenue (NBR). It, however, drew the minister's attention to mitigate difficulties and issue the tax exemption certificate.
The businesses also called upon the finance minister to revise the PPR template of the government in favor of local companies as the local ICT companies are now capable of handling national and international projects.
The minister assured them of looking into the proposals positively and said the local companies are now capable of implementing the national and international projects.
Director General of Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) Md. Ali Noor, BASIS Vice President (Admin) Shoeb Ahmed Masud and BASIS Vice President (Finance) Mushfiqur Rahman were present at the meeting.
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