All economic zones and all entities established in the economic zone in Bangladesh are exempted from the requirements of Board of Investment. They are also exempted from the taxation of Local Government (Pourosova). Bangladesh government on 25th April 2016 published two gazettes in this regard.
Usually, a company is required to obtain certain approval and registration from the Board of Investment (“BOI”) while operating in Bangladesh. In some cases, it is very much difficult to import capital machinery without certain documents from BOI. Since the economic zones are exempted from this requirement, we are yet to see how this will be played out in practice.
Pourosova usually imposes certain tax on the business entities established/operating within its jurisdiction. Economic zones are exempted from these taxation from now on.