Dhaka, Dec. 5 -- Business leaders urge the government to grant relief from excessively high bank interest as they find current borrowing costs as an unbearable burden for industries already weakened by rising operational expenses.

They also seek exemptions from advance income tax (AIT), describing the National Board of Revenue's Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) as a form of "tax terrorism" that squeezes businesses irrespective of profit or loss.

Such concerns were raised Thursday at a dialogue organised at the headquarters of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) in Agargaon, Dhaka. More than a hundred business leaders and industrialists from different sectors participated in discussion.

Besides fiscal reforms, participants de...