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VAT a big obstacle for women entrepreneurship
Nasrin Awal Mintoo, Founder President, Women Entrepreneur Association of Bangladesh : Value Added Tax (VAT) is a big obstacle for women entrepreneurs. If VAT is imposed from before taking loans, it will cripple business. I hope the authorities concerned will look into this in the upcoming budget. It should be made easier for women entrepreneurs to get loan facilities. They have come a long way and made great contributions to the industry. So they too have contributed to the country’s development. Arrangements should be made to make loans easier for them. How can they flourish in businesses if tax has to be paid as soon as they receive loans? A specific initiative should be present in the budget for this regard.
Every fiscal year, the section of the national budget allocated for women is never utilized properly – most of the time it is just abandoned – which is not a good sign. Women entrepreneurs and organizations should be consulted when drafting the budget.
Currently, information and communication technology (ICT) is a vital sector, whose influence is everywhere. Both men and women have been blessed with it. Unfortunately, this influence has not yet reached every corner of the country and many are deprived of the blessings of technology, which is extremely useful at workplace. The needs and wants of tech-savvy people are now greater than before as well. Even though women’s participation in the ICT sector has increased, there is still a lack of proper training. They need to be given proper training in order to transform them into a skilled workforce. There has to be a provision in the upcoming national budget for the proper training of women entrepreneurs.
Based on an interview by Nazmul Islam, translated by Abrar Hussain