A common demand among all of information and communications technology (ICT) stakeholders and investors in telecommunication sectors, is for a reduction of the government’s VAT on internet and transmission services.
Over the past fifteen years, Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS), Internet Service Providers’ Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB), Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and Bangladesh Association of Call Center and Outsourcing (BACCO) along with experts and educationalists, have expressed their demands on the issue but the policy makers have done nothing about it.
“I cannot understand why the government imposes 15% VAT on internet usage,” said Mustafa Jabbar, one of the directors of BCS.
He has requested that the government lifts this VAT considering the fact that young people make up the majority of users of these services.
“VAT on internet services should be withdrawn in order to make the it available at the grassroots, which is one of the key factors in the digitalisation process of all sectors of the country,” said the president of ISPAB, Akhtaruzzaman Manju.
Manju said every year, demands made and presented to the government, which are not considered during the national budget. Manju recalled the first time the government imposed the VAT on internet usage and other luxuries in 1998. He said internet is not a luxury anymore; now it should be considered a fundamental necessity.
Syed Almas Kabir, the acting president of BASIS and the vice president of ISPAB, said the country earns an estimated $60m by exporting software and $20m from outsourcing. “The government’s earnings from the VAT on internet is around Tk3bn but if the VAT is withdrawn, the number of internet users will rise significantly and this will open more development opportunities, which in turn will contribute more to the government exchequer.”
Munir Hasan, the general secretary of Bangladesh Math Olympiad, said: “We noticed that the country’s ISPs are often gives users shared internet connections. This means they buy 1Mbps of bandwidth from the international internet gateways (IIGs) and then sell it to four to six people, charging a 15% VAT from each consumer.”
Hassan said if necessary the government could impose a 4.5% VAT on internet services, considering it an educational tool.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Muhammad Zahidul Islam
Quelle/Source: Dhaka Tribune, 28.05.2013
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