Oil prices fell on Friday on the prospect of more supply returning to the market after oil tankers began to move through the Strait of Hormuz following the signing of the US-Iran interim peace deal, reports AFP.

Brent ‌crude futures fell 54 cents, or 0.68%, to $78.31 a barrel as of 0146 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 46 cents, or 0.60%, to $76.14 a barrel. The front-month July contract expires on Monday. The more actively traded August contract was at $75.06 a barrel, down 79 cents.

Both benchmarks touched their lowest since early March on Thursday as ⁠several tankers, including three Saudi-flagged vessels with 6 million barrels of crude onboard, sailed through the strait hours after US President Donald Trump signed a deal with Iran to end their war.

Analysts expect the deal to release more than 85 million barrels of oil stranded in the Middle East Gulf into global markets. The agreement also includes the lifting of US sanctions on Iranian oil which would add more supply.

"Traders are still waiting for hard evidence that tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is actually normalising before committing ‌to ⁠the next leg lower," KCM Chief Market Analyst Tim Waterer said.

"Until those ships start moving consistently again, scepticism lingers and keeps a lid on the downside."

Prior to the war, roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transited through the strait, and analysts have ⁠suggested trade could return to normal in the coming months if the US-Iran deal holds.

Middle East producers are also gearing up to resume exports.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp said on Thursday that all force ⁠majeure notices issued during the war have been lifted with immediate effect.

Iraq's Oil Minister Basim Mohammed said the country's oilfields are ready to resume production and a ⁠return to normal output levels will take place gradually until previous production rates are restored.

However, Israel has continued its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, raising questions about whether the US-Iran peace agreement would hold.

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."