Bangladesh poultry industry appeals for exemptions

The Bangladesh poultry industry has asked for tax cuts and exemptions for the 2021-22 fiscal year to recover from the losses incurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to enable the industry to enter the export market by 2025.

The poultry industry faced losses of US$825 million amid the pandemic and the poultry feed industry alone has already suffered losses of an estimated US$98 million from January to May this year, noted the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council (BPICC).

In 2020, prices of poultry products reached a 12-year low due to the pandemic, according to the Dhaka Tribune, further reporting that according to a survey conducted in June last year, 35-40% of feed production and about 40-50% of sales of medicines and pharmaceutical products used in the production of poultry products declined.

The Council proposed extending all benefits on advance tax, advance income tax, taxes, and duties, VAT, etc. for at least another 10 years, and to exempt the tax at source on the collection of raw materials from local sources, which is currently between 2% and 5%. Poultry entrepreneurs have proposed to reduce the corporate tax for animal feed manufacturers from 15% to 5%.

General secretary of Feeders’ Industries Association of Bangladesh, Md Ahsanuzzaman, urged the government to revive and protect the poultry industry, noting that the poultry industry is the source of employment for 6 million people in the country.