S Humayun Kabir, director of the Association, demanded at a meeting organized by Daily Star that the tax rate be slashed to 2004-05 levels of 0.25 percent, given the circumstances faced by exporters.
Shrimp farmers and exporters face lot of hurdles, including lack of collateral-free loans and absence of any insurance policy, said Kabir. Moreover, he said the bank interest rate has gone up as high as 20 percent recently.
"Under these circumstances, we want the government to reduce the proposed tax on exports to 0.25 percent," he said. The Centre for Policy Dialogue in its budget analysis purported that the higher tax could eat into up to 17 percent of the exporters' profits.
