Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 1087 Fri. June 22, 2007  
   
Letters to Editor


Taxation


I would like to take this opportunity to comment on tax increase on telecommunication equipments and computer.

1) Telecommunication and computer are directly related to and essential ingredients of Information & Communication Technology (ICT).

2) ICT is a priority sector. Bangladesh is already a signatory to WTO and WSIS (World Society on Information Sector) where ICT 's importance has been accepted as a priority sector.

3) One of the main challenges in front of Bangladesh is more and more job creation. ICT is a sector where hundreds of thousands of jobs can easily be created with less investment. It is a skilled-manpower-intensive industry.

4) The forecast is that half the jobs in the world will be shortly in the field of ICT or ICT related areas.

5) With the reduction of taxes on those items in the last budgets, the ICT sector started growing, even lower income groups started getting service.

6) Capital Dhaka and major cities are well connected by transmission networks. To utilise these networks computers are necessary.

7) The Ministry of Finance can seek the opinion of ITU (International Telecom. Union, a specialised organisation of the UN) which helps members states with advice/statistics/study results.