RANGPUR: Senior Secretary of the Internal Resources Division and Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem on Thursday encouraged the private sector investment to accelerate regional development.
“The government wants to develop every area, not only big city-based areas, and allocated extra for less developed areas to spread the development activities and create more jobs to ensure smooth development of the nation,” he said, reports BSS.
He said this while addressing a pre-budget (2023-2024 FY) discussion with the leaders of District Chambers of Rangpur division organized by Rangpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) at Begum Rokeya auditorium of the RDRS Bangladesh as chief guest.
RCCI President Mostafa Sohrab Chowdhury Titu presided over the discussion and delivered a welcome speech citing various problems being faced by the traders, industrialists and investors of Rangpur division and forwarded suggestions to resolve those problems.
Presidents, Senior-vice-presidents and Directors of all chambers of the division, traders, industrialists and civil society members attended the event and raised various issues in the field of tax, VAT, trade and industrialization and forwarded relevant suggestions.
The RCCI President discussed issues related to the income and import taxes, VAT, trade and prevailing prospects and forwarded suggestions for promoting the industrialisation to create jobs for unemployed and accelerate development in the division. “We have to achieve the SDGs by 2030 and reduce the extreme poverty rate to the below three percent level for building a discrimination-free developed Smart Bangladesh by 2041 leaving no one behind as envisioned by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,” he said.
To attain the goal, he proposed establishing the ‘Smart Rangpur Divisional Development Board’ and sought special allocation for its implementation to take the economically backward Rangpur division to the mainstream national development level.
He asked for strengthening commercial and diplomatic activities to attract the local and foreign investments in the division and fetch international markets for local industrial products giving priority to setting up more agriculture-based industries.
The NBR Chairman said the government is implementing massive infrastructural development works in Rangpur region to ensure communications and create facilities for industrialization for accelerating the development of the region.
“Local investors can invest in their own area availing the facilities created by the government and also attract investors from other districts to invest in Rangpur region for setting up industries and creating jobs in the region,” he said.
He thanked the RCCI authority for presenting excellent and very rich budget proposals in a brochure to him and hoped that the proposals will be reflected in the next national budget.
Members of NBR Zakia Sultana (VAT Policy), Masud Sadiq (Customs Policy) and Sams Uddin Ahmed (Tax Policy), Divisional Commissioner Md Sabirul Islam, Rangpur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Nure Alam Mina and Tax Commissioner of Taxes Zone-Rangpur Md Shahin Akhter Hossain spoke as special guests.
