Govt spares more essential items from VAT during Ramadan

The government has exempted production-and-business-level value-added tax on some daily necessities in the public interest during the Ramadan.

In order to strengthen Bangladesh's own financial base, the government has issued the "Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025" and "The Excises and Salt (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025" on January 9, 2025.

For the same purpose, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has issued several notifications re-fixing the rates of VAT, supplementary duty and excise duty on some goods and services.

Later, in view of the requests of various professional organisations, civil society, stakeholders and the demand to keep the daily necessities market within the purchasing limits of the general public during the month of Ramadan, the government has taken the matter seriously in the larger public interest.

In the interest of the general public, including price control, maintaining normal supply of essential commodities, and the larger interest of the general public, the government has issued a new notification on March 2, 2025, granting VAT exemption as follows:

In order to increase the use of rapeseed oil, colza seed oil, canola oil as an alternative to soybean oil, VAT exemption has been granted at the production stage of rapeseed oil, colza seed oil, canola oil and at the trading stage of Sunflower Seed Oil (Refined), rapeseed oil, colza seed oil, canola oil, mustard oil and rice bran oil produced in the country.

It is pertinent to mention that in the larger interest of the general public of the country, the National Board of Revenue has provided a large-scale tax exemption on import duty, regulatory duty, VAT, advance income tax and advance tax on edible oil, sugar, potatoes, eggs, onions, rice, dates and pesticides in the last few months. In order to ensure easy availability of books for students at all levels of Bangladesh, to establish a modern and information technology-based education system and to improve the quality of the education system, VAT exemption has been provided for e-book services at the local supply and import level.