Bangladesh road map aims at raising tax-to-GDP ratio to 15% by 2035

06 Mar '26

2 min read

Bangladesh road map aims at raising tax-to-GDP ratio to 15% by 2035

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Insights

Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, Prime Minister's Adviser Finance and Planning, recently outlined a comprehensive road map to overhaul the country's economic framework, setting a target to raise the tax-GDP ratio to 15 per cent by 2035, while taking the nation forward on a path of investment-led growth.
A key pillar of this transition is a significant increase in internal resource mobilisation, he said.

Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, Prime Minister’s Adviser Finance and Planning, recently outlined a comprehensive road map to overhaul the country’s economic framework, setting a target to raise the tax-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio to 15 per cent by 2035, while taking the nation forward on a path of investment-led growth.

The model will be fuelled by both domestic and foreign direct investment. The country’s tax-to-GDP ratio currently sits at the bottom level globally.

A key pillar of this transition is a significant increase in internal resource mobilisation, he said.

“The previous consumption-led growth model was unsustainable and had left the country burdened by a mountain of debt accumulated particularly between 2009 and 2024,” he told a recent roundtable on the government’s priorities in the short-to-medium term.

The roundtable was organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and The Daily Star newspaper.

There is a need for a tax culture rooted in investment, production and employment, he was cited as saying by domestic media reports.

He identified several systemic maladies in the current revenue structure that require urgent reform.

The government intends to move from greenfield incentives (based on identity and influence) to performance-based subsidies (ex-post subsidies), he said, adding that this model, which proved successful in the garments sector, will reward actual results rather than potential.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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