Cut corporate tax for mobile operators: BTRC chairman

The government should consider the operators' demand on slashing corporate tax as the mobile operators have to continue investing big to cope up with rapidly changing technology, said Shyam Sunder Sikder, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

There are some logic behind their demands and transparency needs to be ensured in the sector's tax structure, he said.

He was delivering his speech at a policy dialogue on the telecom tax policy and its ecosystem organised by the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) and Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum (BIGF) at a hotel in the capital today.

In the event, the telecom operators demanded the corporate tax for listed and non-listed companies to be set at 25 per cent and 32 per cent respectively, down the current 40 per cent and 45 per cent.

Sikder said the operators, however, have to bridge the huge gap in ensuring quality of service as there are frequent call drops and low quality data service, he added.

Taimur Rahman, chief corporate and regulatory affairs officer at Banglalink, said: "The telecom operators are among the major contributors to the materialisation of the government's 'Digital Bangladesh' vision as we have been serving millions of customers despite carrying a heavy tax burden and facing many other challenges."

Grameenphone CCAO (acting) Hossain Sadat said: "We have tried to draw the attention of the policymakers to address the high tax issue as we need to remove the tax disparity."