Budget allows freelancers, content creators to remit $5,000 without paperwork: Minister

Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury on Monday said the proposed FY2026-27 budget allows freelancers and content creators to remit up to $5,000 without paperwork, calling it the most youth-friendly budget the country has ever seen.

"Earlier, even bringing in Tk 10 from abroad required filling out forms and going through hassles. Now, freelancers and content creators can bring in up to $5,000 without any formalities," the minister said at an event organised by the Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) at the University of Asia Pacific auditorium in the capital.

The budget also extends tax exemptions to startups, freelancers, and content creators, the minister said, adding that the government is actively working to bring global payment platforms into the country to make digital earnings easier to repatriate.

PayPal and several other international payment platforms are already in the process of launching operations in Bangladesh, he said. "We told platforms around the world, come and open up in Bangladesh. Many are already coming. PayPal and three or four others are on their way."

Khosru said the budget has reduced costs across the entire digital ecosystem including making SIM cards more affordable. "We don't want a digital Bangladesh in words we want it to be real. We are moving the entire country to real-time online systems."

He noted that deeper digitalisation would naturally curb corruption by reducing physical contact between citizens and government offices. "We want you to serve your purpose from home, online. The more we reduce physical contact, the more corruption will fall."

The minister said the government has consciously shifted away from old economic models towards what he called "economic democratisation," ensuring that the benefits of growth reach ordinary people, including those long excluded from the mainstream economy.

"If people don't actively participate in the economy and the fruits of growth don't reach them, then all the figures about Bangladesh's GDP growth and export earnings become meaningless."

He added that the government's focus on the creative economy is aimed at bringing in the large segment of the population that has historically remained outside the mainstream, describing it as a central pillar of the new economic vision.