TBT Desk:
Traders, especially small entrepreneurs of Old Dhaka, one of the oldest and largest business hubs of the country, have been facing various challenges in recent times due to unbearable traffic congestion, water logging, weak infrastructure, inadequate access to finance to SMEs, deteriorated law and order situation, increased Dollar price, delay in import and export procedures, high rate of interest on loan, increased vat and tax rate and complex revenue structure.
These were identified by the Old Dhaka businessmen at an exchange meeting with the small and medium entrepreneurs of the old part of Dhaka organised by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) at Old Dhaka on 8 February 2025, reads a press release.
Business leaders of different specialised associations of Old Dhaka and representatives of several other business organisations participated in the discussion.
Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Lalbag Division), Md Jashim Uddin, Director (Research), Chief Economist's Unit Dr Md Selim Al Mamun and Additional Commissioner, Custom, Excise and Vat Commissionerate (South, Dhaka) of NBR Manash Kumar Barman were present on the occasion as special guests as public sector representatives, reads a press release.
Dhaka Chamber President Taskeen Ahmed, in his welcome speech, stressed the need for simplifying the tax and VAT system, also simplifying the system according to the size, nature and capacity of the businesses, removing complexity and bottlenecks in the import-export procedures, and fixing a realistic VAT rate.
He said, that despite being one of the ancient business hubs for trade and commerce for more than hundreds of years, the entrepreneurs of Old Dhaka here have been facing various problems due to increasing traffic congestion, lack of infrastructure, and tax and VAT issues.
To solve these problems, joint initiative both from the government and private sector is needed, he added. He also said that for a business-friendly environment, improving law and order situations is a must.
Dr Md Selim Al Mamun, director (Research), chief economist's unit, Bangladesh Bank said that from 2022 to 2024, the dollar rate depreciated by 35% in the local market and it caused instability in currency management, but the central bank is working to bring stability of exchange rate. He also said imports and exports have increased by 3.5 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively in the last six months and remittances have reached USD 16 billion in the last seven months. He said the Bangladesh Bank has already formed a task force to bring back the siphoned money.
Additional Commissioner of Customs Excise and VAT Commissionerate (South, Dhaka), NBR, Manash Kumar Barman, said the government has already taken the initiative to automate the VAT system by VAT online registration process, to ease the VAT payment return system and reduce harassment.
He later urged the entrepreneurs not to pay VAT to anyone without a receipt.

He also said that there is a misconception about VAT and he later clarified that for traders, VAT is always calculated based on the product's value addition not on the manufactured price.

Md Jashim Uddin, deputy commissioner of Police (Lalbagh Division), DMP, said that traffic police will be deployed at 8 important spots to ease traffic congestion in Old Dhaka, but also urged the businessmen to come forward to recruit volunteers with them as well. He also suggested the traders take the help of police to transport cash during the upcoming Ramadan.

He also informed that several roads in old Dhaka will be made one-way to ease traffic congestion soon. Describing juvenile gangs known as "Kishore gangs" as a social disease, he said collective efforts must be taken to tackle it socially and family-wise since the age of the miscreants are sometimes below 18 years of age.

Matiur Rahman, former president of DCCI, suggested that considering the economic situation of the country, it is necessary to reduce the LC margin irrespective of the bank-client relationship. Also, he discourages changing tariff rates by issuing SROs in the middle of the year.

Manwar Hossain, chairman of Anwar Group of Industries and former director of DCCI, stressed the need for increasing the tax net by reducing the tax rate, as well as rationalizing the tax rate.

Alhaj Abdus Salam, former senior vice-president of DCCI, said that due to unbearable traffic congestion, the sales of old Dhaka traders are continuously decreasing, while they are also facing increasing losses due to the high rate of tax and VAT and the complexity of revenue management.

Participating in the open discussion session, the representatives of the sectoral trade associations of old Dhaka emphasized on introduction of a package VAT system on essential.