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The newly elected Executive Council (2024-2026) of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) has formally been inaugurated with the oath to achieve self-sufficiency and establish sovereignty of indigenous software in the ICT sector to implement Smart Bangladesh.
A Towhid, founder president of BASIS, administered the oath to the newly elected executive council at an event at Hotel Radisson Blu in the capital recently.
At the ceremony, Russell T Ahmed, president of BASIS, M Rashidul Hasan, senior vice president of BASIS, Syed Mohammad Kamal, vice president (Admin), Iqbal Ahmed Fakhrul Hasan, vice president (finance), and the newly elected directors of BASIS Md Mostafizur Rahaman Sohel, Didarul Alam, M Asif Rahman, Dr Muhammad Risalat Siddique, Mir Shahrukh Islam, Biplob Ghosh Rahul and Syed Abdullah Jayed took oath.
As Russell T Ahmed was re-elected as the president of BASIS, outgoing vice-president (admin) Abu Daud Khan and vice president (finance) Fahim Ahmed handed over the BASIS flag to him at the ceremony. Later, the outgoing executive council members, BASIS election board, and appeal board were felicitated by the guests for their contribution. Samira Zuberi Himika, the outgoing senior vice president of BASIS, delivered the welcome address on the occasion.
Russell T Ahmed said, ‘We have noticed a number of inconsistencies in the NBR regarding tax exemptions in the IT sector. According to them, the IT sector makes a profit of Tk 5,000 crore and the revenue of this industry is Tk 50,000 crore. But the total turnover of this sector is Tk 2,000 crore.”
“Once this anomaly is removed, we think the IMF will lose interest in taxing this industry. In this case, we are demanding tax exemption till 2031 considering the potential of this sector,” he also said.
“ICT will be the nucleus for the implementation of Smart Bangladesh. To achieve this goal by achieving self-sufficiency in the local market and moving towards the 5 billion dollar target, we feel that the government should set a target of self-sufficiency in the IT sector by 2041 through a policy,” he added.
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