The government will also allocate Tk 100 crore as ICT development fund, and another Tk 50 crore for setting up an ICT park, finance ministry officials said.
"The government aims to support its vision for a 'Digital Bangladesh' through fiscal measures, and so it wants to raise ICT allocation by around 5 percent of the annual development programme outlay," a high official of the ministry said, preferring anonymity.
He said the allocation will be spent for infrastructure development and giving stimulus packages to the entrepreneurs and professionals of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry.
The government is also likely to exempt some IT-based services from income tax, said an official of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
The services include digital data processing, computer graphics and animation, digital content management, web-enabled services and computer-based business process outsourcing.
"The government is considering almost all the demands of the ICT sector," said the NBR official, requesting not to be named.
The next budget will also exempt tax on some networking equipment.
Computer network switching hub, network router, DSL and broadband routers, USB, data, HDD SATA and LAN cables, terminal connector and server rack mount kits are likely to enjoy zero duty and VAT from the next fiscal year, the NBR official said.
Currently such networking equipment pays 3-25 percent duty and VAT.
Mustafa Jabbar, president of Bangladesh Computer Samity, welcomed the government move to waive taxes on ICT products and services.
He said the government should work proactively to make its 'Vision 2021' successful and implement digital Bangladesh.
Habibullah N Karim, the immediate past president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, said the government should come up with more fiscal measures to help develop the ICT sector.
More investors will join the sector, he added.
- Jasim Uddin Khan
source:
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=141822
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