Freelancers of the country are finally going to receive 10 percent cash incentive against their earnings from exporting services.
The decision was taken in a recent meeting of the finance ministry, sources said.
Now what the freelancers have to do is to provide necessary documents supporting that their income has come from exporting services.
The government provides 10 percent cash assistance for the export of ICT products. It announced the same incentive for freelancers two years ago. But the plan could not be implemented as the finance ministry opposed it.
Officials of the finance ministry and the Bangladesh Bank said State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak had written to Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir in October last year asking for 10 percent cash incentive to freelancers. When the central bank sought the finance ministry's opinion about this, the Finance Division responded in the negative.
The Finance Division later formed a review committee in December after the intervention of Salman F Rahman, private industry and investment adviser to the prime minister.
Moreover, the finance ministry requested the Finance Division last month to provide 10 percent cash assistance to freelancers. The committee then finalised its report by recommending this incentive.
The central bank will issue a circular in this regard after receiving the recommendation.
The finance ministry and the central bank favoured providing 2 percent cash assistance to freelancers, similar to remittances sent by expatriates.
Since freelancers do not work in offices, it is difficult to audit whether or not they have exported services.
But freelancers say exporting services is more important than exporting goods as exporting services does not require importing raw materials, unlike exporting goods.
That is why there is no way to show freelancers' earnings as remittances. They have to be considered as exports and so a 10 percent cash incentive, like ICT product exports, has to be made available.
According to the central bank, $265 million in export earnings came through banking channels in the ICT services (IT-enabled services, including business process outsourcing, software and computer consultancy services) sector in the last fiscal year.
Of this, $172 million came from computer data processing and hosting services. Companies exporting such services received 10% cash assistance against their exports.
But freelancers do not receive any cash assistance even though they earn foreign currency by exporting these services.
The Bangladesh Bank and the Export Promotion Bureau have no information about the actual earnings of freelancers.
In the 2019-20 fiscal year, Bangladesh earned $73 million from computer software exports and $20 million from computer consultancy services. Exporters received 10 percent cash assistance for their performance.
From July to October of the current financial year, $88 million was earned through export of ICT services. Of this, $59 million came from IT services, $20 million from computer software and about $9 million from computer consultancy services.