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Luxury loses priority for now as the government is unable to facilitate gold import presently for foreign-currency crunch as import essentials like rice, fuels and so weighs on uncomfortable level of reserves.
Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Md Abdur Rahman Khan Sunday unveiled such priority reset as Bangladesh Bank made public its struggle to pay import bills as the banking sector has "almost been emptied" by the past government.
He informed Bangladesh Jewelers' Association (BAJUS) about the situation in a meeting with its leaders on the NBR premises following pleas for lowering import duty on foreign diamond buys.
On the contrary, the revenue-board chief hinted at imposing Advance Income Tax (AIT) on jewelry imports-in the wake of the interim government's hunt for higher revenues for deficit financing.
He held out an assurance for the businesses of considering their proposals after normalizing the country's foreign-exchange reserves.
Leaders of BAJUS have raised complaints on existing complexities on the import of gold-which, reports say, results in influx of the precious metal through informal ways.
Reponul Hassan, vice-president of BAJUS, said importers of gold have to wait 10 to 15 days to get BB approval, and another week thereafter to get imported gold released.
"BSTI has no lab to test gold, but still we need to get clearance for BSTI," he added.
The association demanded a reduction in VAT on gold imports to 3.0 per cent from the existing 5.0 per cent.
"Also, gold smuggling became rampant in the country, causing immense suffering to the compliant businesses in this sector," he told the meet.
The NBR chairman questioned availability of gold jewelries in shops despite insignificant import data.
Bangladesh Bank director Masuma Akter Happy told the meeting that only 19 organisations got approval in 2019 for gold import and only 160 kilograms of gold had been imported so far in legal way.
"The government had suspended import of gold for some time considering the foreign-exchange situation, but it was opened up in November 2024," she said.
At the programme was over, the NBR chairman said time for submission of tax return would not be extended further beyond February 16, 2025.
The NBR has received around 3.8 million tax returns. Of them, some 1.8 million has registered for submitting online return.
Meanwhile, a press statement of the NBR says taxpayers will be able to submit tax returns round the year but no tax exemption, rebate for investment would be available after the February-16 deadline.
Also, taxpayers will have to pay a monthly penalty at a rate of 2.0 per cent (maximum 24 months) on the amount of unpaid tax.