M M Jasim :
Bhega Garments is a fake factory. But it imports goods with tax- free advantage. Taking the advantage, it has also evaded taxes amounting to Tk 46 crore.
Like the Bhega Garments, at least 477 factories have disappeared swallowing huge amount of taxes. Of them, 315 factories evaded tax about Tk 727 crore.
The puzzling information was revealed in a survey recently conducted by the Customs Bond Commissionarate (CBC) of National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Apart from tax evasion, the CBC also found huge irregularities including lack of information in their identities. For this, the CBC postponed all import and export operations of these factories.
NBR sources said, the government gives tax free advantage to export-oriented factories to import raw materials under the Bonded Warehouse System (BWS). But these factories exported the goods under the label of produced items which earlier were imported from abroad with tax-free advantage.
Besides, the produced goods cannot be sold in the local market. But these factories do not obey the rule. The factories have to maintain some other conditions imposed by CBC.
If the factories follow the rules and regulations, the CBC gives Bond License.
There are 6,250 export-oriented factories which got Bond License in the country. The CBC conducted a survey in these factories.
But strangely, the CBC found 477 factories out of 6,250 as completely baseless.
The CBC conducted such survey for the first time. And interestingly it was found that the 80 percent of these baseless factories are RMG-based. The rest of the factories are in the plastic and packaging sectors.
Out of top 10, the CBC found Bhega Garments on the top of the list of the tax evasion. The other nine tax evaded factories are Waremac Bangladesh, Abu Plastic Industries, Fantom Apperal, Ligend Electronics, Integrity Apperal, Sanjory Toys, Sim Packages and Accessories, A S K Polimar and Jakes Garments.
The local businessmen raised their voice long ago against the false Bond License holders. They also alleged that the false Bond License holders imported the tax- free goods and sold the producing goods in the local market, which was totally illegal.
Customs Bond Commissioner Dr Shahidul Islam said, “The 477 factories have misused all the conditions of Warehouse advantage. They have cheated with the law. The licenses of all the alleged factories have been suspended.”
He said, “Some of them have been suspended permanently and some of them temporarily. They lost the advantage to import goods with tax free. The list of the suspended factories will be given on the website of CBC.”
Shahidul Islam, Vice-President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), however, said that the survey conducted by the CBC was not perfect.
Many factories have been closed. But the CBC put them on the black list. It was irrational, Shahidul Islam said.
