Bangladesh Brand Forum has organised its flagship initiative, the “7th Leadership Summit”.

The summit was presented by American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB), powered by Summit Communications Limited and Sheltech; in association with BSRM, Team Group and The Daily Star and in collaboration with Aspire to Innovate (a2i), Smart Bangladesh Network and Nammcon Consultancy Ltd, held at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel, Dhaka on Saturday, according to a press release.

This year the theme for the summit was “Navigating the Next Frontier: Transforming Organisations for the Future.”

The day-long summit gathered leaders and experts from various industries from home and abroad who shared their experiences and knowledge through distinguished panel discussions, keynote and insight sessions. Having the vision at the core, the speakers branched out, discussing the challenges and complexities of leadership, sustainable business growth, corporate governance and organisation culture with the aspiring audiences, it said.

“Our visions and journeys are shaped by our leaders. Therefore, it’s very important to address how we want to develop our leadership skills to meet the multifaceted challenges and opportunities of the future. I believe the valuable discussions taking place today will be our roadmap and stepping stone to transform our organisations for a better future,” said Shariful Islam, founder and managing director of Bangladesh Brand Forum.

The summit was comprised of five panel discussions, three keynote sessions and one insight session.

The event began with the first keynote session by Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar, Professor, Economics and Executive Director, Centre for Family Business & Entrepreneurship, Bhavan's S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai.

The only insight session was conducted by Ercüment Polat, Chief Executive Officer, United Aygaz LPG Ltd.

Suhail Al Kharsah, Enterprise Agile Coach, Central Transformation Office, Pharma International, conducted the second keynote session on 'Surviving to Thriving, how to create impactful culture that enriches innovation'.

The last keynote session was conducted by Yasir Azman Chief Executive Officer, Grameenphone Ltd on ‘Sustainability: Charting the Path to a Resilient Future.’ The extensive and illustrated sessions were a self-learning experience for the leaders and the future generation in the rows.

The Five Panel Discussions featured around pertinent topics like ‘From Vision to Reality: The Role of Smart Leadership in Nation-Building’; ‘The Trifecta of Excellence: Integrity, Compassion, and Creativity in Leadership’; 'MasterClass of Leadership: Insights from Industry Veterans’; ‘Fusing Foundational Values with the Unrelenting Force of Change’; ‘Growing Amidst Disruption’.

MSH

Companies and organisations will be required to file tax returns on the income generated by employee welfare funds from the current fiscal year and pay a 27.5 percent tax on the earnings. 

The Income Tax Act 2023 incorporates the provision, lifting the tax exemption and amnesty on the compulsion to file returns for funds such as provident funds, gratuity funds and workers' profit participation funds maintained by the private sector.

The law, however, has exempted government-managed provident funds from taxation, raising questions.

TIM Nurul Kabir, executive director of the Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said there were many other avenues to collect tax.

"Employees benefit from provident funds after their retirement. So, the authority should not slap taxes on retirement benefit."

He said while levying the tax, the government has not treated provident funds of the private and public sectors equally.

"It is discriminatory," he said, adding that they would appeal to the tax authority for the withdrawal of the tax on income from provident funds.

Debabrata Roy Chowdhury, director for legal, regulatory and corporate affairs at Nestlé Bangladesh PLC, said the introduction of income tax on trust funds would lower the overall income from such schemes.

"This will have an adverse long-term impact on retired employees of private organisations."

Chowdhury urged the authority to address the issue in line with the spirit of the government's initiatives aimed at ensuring social security for private sector employees.

"The recent introduction of the universal pension scheme for private sector employees is a good example of that."

A senior official of the NBR, on condition of anonymity, said the income of government-managed provident funds was exempted in line with the Provident Fund Act 1925.

He said provident funds under the private sector had been historically exempted and there was no requirement to submit tax returns. As a result, it was unclear whether the funds were properly utilised.

"From now onwards, we will see proper disclosure."

The tax official said the contribution of payroll tax is about 3 percent of the total income tax although it should increase as the economy is growing.

Md Shahadat Hossain, a former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh, said income from investment in savings certificates, where people invest as a source of future earnings, is already taxed.

"From that perspective, the imposition of tax on provident and other employee welfare funds seems okay."

However, Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said social protection for private sector employees was low.

"Provident and other workers' welfare-related funds provide little social protection. The imposition of tax will increase inequality. But there can't be any discrimination in taxation between private and government provident funds."

Khan, citing the latest income tax law that replaced the Income Tax Ordinance 1984, said the NBR tried to find new avenues to increase tax collection and improve the nation's revenue-gross domestic product ratio, which is one of the lowest in the world.

"We can see the desperation of the tax authority to boost collection. This ultimately reveals the inability of the NBR to catch the tax evaders and illicit money makers."