Benapole: National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan on Friday said the government is considering raising the ceiling of tax-free income from Tk 2.5 lakh to Tk 3 lakh.

‘The next budget will be friendlier to people and business,’ the NBR chief said while addressing a pre-budget discussion with stakeholders at Customs House Club here.

The authorities of Benapole Customs House organised the programme ahead of the national budget for the next fiscal year of 2018-19.

Mosharraf said in a small country like Bangladesh, the size of the national budget is now 4 lakh crore and it is getting bigger every year.

The NBR chief asked the businessmen to put importance to export rather than import, saying the Value Added Tax (VAT) will be fixed considering different services in the next budget instead of the flat 15 percent.

Benapole Customs Commissioner Belal Hossain Chowdhury presided over the meeting where NBR members Md Firoz Shah Alam, Kanan Kumar Roy and Md Rezaul Hasan also spoke.