U.S. President Donald Trump urged Iran-backed Hamas militants on Tuesday to agree to what he called a "final proposal" for a 60-day ceasefire with Israel in Gaza that will be delivered by mediating officials from Qatar and Egypt.

In a social media post, Trump said his representatives had a "long and productive" meeting with Israeli officials about Gaza.

He did not identify his representatives but U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance had been due to meet Ron Dermer, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump said Israel has agreed to the conditions to finalize a 60-day ceasefire, "during which time we will work with all parties to end the War." He said representatives for Qatar and Egypt will deliver "this final proposal" to Hamas.

"I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" he said.

Trump told reporters earlier in the day that he is hopeful that a ceasefire-for-hostages agreement can be achieved next week between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. He is set to meet Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.

Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages, opens new tab in Gaza under any deal to end the war, while Israel says it can only end if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.

The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The two sides have shown little sign of a readiness to budge from their entrenched positions.

The U.S. has proposed a 60-day ceasefire and the release of half the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and the remains of other Palestinians.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said earlier this week Israel has agreed to a U.S.-proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage deal, and put the onus on Hamas.

Trump and his aides appear to be seeking to use any momentum from U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran nuclear sites, as well as a ceasefire that took hold last week in that conflict, to secure a lasting truce in the war in Gaza.

Trump told reporters during a visit to Florida that he would be "very firm" with Netanyahu on the need for a speedy Gaza ceasefire while noting that the Israeli leader wants one as well.

"We hope it's going to happen. And we're looking forward to it happening sometime next week," he told reporters. "We want to get the hostages out."

Gaza's health ministry says Israel's post-Oct. 7 military assault has killed over 56,000 Palestinians. The assault has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations.

(This story has been corrected to clarify that Israel demands Hamas be disarmed in the third bullet point)

Reporting by Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick; additional reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Mark Porter, Cynthia Osterman and Lincoln Feast.

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."