In order to promote employment of members of the third gender community, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday proposed tax rebates for organizations employing 10% transgender employees or 100 third gender employees.
He made the remarks while announcing the annual national budget for 2021-22 fiscal year at parliament.
Noting that members of the third gender community are often deprived of the opportunity to engage in socio-economic activities and the need to engage them in mainstream society, the finance minister said: "I propose to insert necessary provision in the law to provide tax rebate amounting to 75% of the total salary paid to the workers from the third gender or 5% of payable tax, whichever is lower, to the employers who will employ 10% of their total workforce or more than 100 workers from the members of the third gender."
The National Board of Revenue earlier made the proposal to mainstream people of third gender by bringing about a change in people's mindset about third gender persons who face discrimination and are marginalized in society.
There are currently no financial benefits on offer for businesses that employ third gender workers.
