Special Correspondent :
Leaders of Bangladesh Jewellers’ Association [BJA] have demanded that government should formulate a business-friendly policy for easing the gold import in a legal way.
The BJA leaders, however, opined that gold smuggling will not be stopped even if the import policy is introduced. They said it at a press conference held at Jatiya Press Club in the city on Thursday. President of BJA Gangacharan Malakar and other leaders were also present there.
They demanded a business-friendly import policy in the next fiscal year 2017-18 along with stopping harassment to the gold businessmen before formulation of the import policy. They threatened to announce a bigger protest programme, if the import policy is not introduced by the aforesaid period.
Significantly, the BJA arranged the press conference yesterday at a time when Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate [CIID] was conducting raids at the five outlets of Apan Jwellers, the country’s top jwellery brand, for the second time in a span of one week.
“The international gold smuggling rackets are using Bangladesh as the transit route. Particularly, the smuggled gold goes to India where local market price of gold is very high and its import cost is also too high. For that reason, the syndicates prefer to smuggle out the gold through Bangladesh,” Dilip Kumar Agarwala, General Secretary of BJA, said.
Along with Nepal, Bangladesh is being used as a transit route to smuggled gold into India, the world’s largest buyer of gold, while India imports between 850 and 1,000 tonnes of gold, valued at about US$37.7 billion per year.
Apart from the gold bricks, bars, biscuits and ornaments are also smuggled in through the airports dodging the surveillance of 19 agencies responsible for security. The gold smugglers allegedly get protection from a section of corrupt officials of police, Customs, Biman and Civil Aviation
Authority of Bangladesh. Against this backdrop, the BJA leader said: “The country’s highest court will decide whether the seized gold of Apan Jwellers worth about Tk 250 crore is legal or illegal.” The NBR recently seized a huge quantity of gold and diamond from the showrooms of Apan Jwellers terming them ‘illegal’.
Sources close to the jwellery industry said the total seized gold by different agencies is only 10 to 15 per cent of the whole smuggled gold that enter the country through different routes.
The precious metal is brought by the international syndicates for use as a reliable mode of payment, especially in arms and drug deals while the foreign currencies like US dollars, pounds, Euro and Saudi Riyal are being smuggled out through the same channel.
Answering another question, Dilip Kumar Agarwala said: “We are demanding proper justice to the son of Apan Jweller’s owner for his nasty work. Although Apan Jwellers is the member of BJA, the organisation will not bear the liability of its illegal gold or son’s misdeed,” he stated. There are 17,000 registered Jwellery houses across the country where around 28 lakh people, including owners and workers, are directly involved with this industry. BJA leaders said the government will loss a big amount of revenue, if they are harassed.
If the government introduces an import policy, the country’s jwellery industry will be benefited. But we think, it will be tough to stop gold smuggling despite formulating of import policy, the leaders opined. In the press conference, former General Secretary of BJA Dewan Aminul Islam Shahin in his written statement said, “It needs to pay 4% duty and Tk 3000 both per bhori to import gold. We demand to reduce the money to Tk 500. At the same time, the process of opening LC [letter of credit] must be easier. The government should establish ‘gold exchange’ or ‘gold bank’ to supply gold to the traders.”
Taking a question from the reporters, the BJA leader said, “It’s a prolonged procedure to import gold through opening LC. Usually, the gold traders buy gold from the ‘poddars’ of Tanti Bazar and ‘migrant Bangladeshis’ for doing business.”
When asked whether gold business is legal or illegal, the BJA leader said, “The gold business is legal. If it is not legal, then how we pay VAT [value added tax] to the government? The government never said we can’t buy gold from local traders or migrant Bangladeshis. We want to run gold business as per the policy which will be introduced by the government in the future.” A few days ago, the BJA called for an indefinite strike, protesting the alleged harassment by the NBR conducting drives at different jewellery shops in the capital. They withdrew their strike after holding talks with the CIID at that time.
Leaders of Bangladesh Jewellers’ Association [BJA] have demanded that government should formulate a business-friendly policy for easing the gold import in a legal way.
The BJA leaders, however, opined that gold smuggling will not be stopped even if the import policy is introduced. They said it at a press conference held at Jatiya Press Club in the city on Thursday. President of BJA Gangacharan Malakar and other leaders were also present there.
They demanded a business-friendly import policy in the next fiscal year 2017-18 along with stopping harassment to the gold businessmen before formulation of the import policy. They threatened to announce a bigger protest programme, if the import policy is not introduced by the aforesaid period.
Significantly, the BJA arranged the press conference yesterday at a time when Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate [CIID] was conducting raids at the five outlets of Apan Jwellers, the country’s top jwellery brand, for the second time in a span of one week.
“The international gold smuggling rackets are using Bangladesh as the transit route. Particularly, the smuggled gold goes to India where local market price of gold is very high and its import cost is also too high. For that reason, the syndicates prefer to smuggle out the gold through Bangladesh,” Dilip Kumar Agarwala, General Secretary of BJA, said.
Along with Nepal, Bangladesh is being used as a transit route to smuggled gold into India, the world’s largest buyer of gold, while India imports between 850 and 1,000 tonnes of gold, valued at about US$37.7 billion per year.
Apart from the gold bricks, bars, biscuits and ornaments are also smuggled in through the airports dodging the surveillance of 19 agencies responsible for security. The gold smugglers allegedly get protection from a section of corrupt officials of police, Customs, Biman and Civil Aviation
Authority of Bangladesh. Against this backdrop, the BJA leader said: “The country’s highest court will decide whether the seized gold of Apan Jwellers worth about Tk 250 crore is legal or illegal.” The NBR recently seized a huge quantity of gold and diamond from the showrooms of Apan Jwellers terming them ‘illegal’.
Sources close to the jwellery industry said the total seized gold by different agencies is only 10 to 15 per cent of the whole smuggled gold that enter the country through different routes.
The precious metal is brought by the international syndicates for use as a reliable mode of payment, especially in arms and drug deals while the foreign currencies like US dollars, pounds, Euro and Saudi Riyal are being smuggled out through the same channel.
Answering another question, Dilip Kumar Agarwala said: “We are demanding proper justice to the son of Apan Jweller’s owner for his nasty work. Although Apan Jwellers is the member of BJA, the organisation will not bear the liability of its illegal gold or son’s misdeed,” he stated. There are 17,000 registered Jwellery houses across the country where around 28 lakh people, including owners and workers, are directly involved with this industry. BJA leaders said the government will loss a big amount of revenue, if they are harassed.
If the government introduces an import policy, the country’s jwellery industry will be benefited. But we think, it will be tough to stop gold smuggling despite formulating of import policy, the leaders opined. In the press conference, former General Secretary of BJA Dewan Aminul Islam Shahin in his written statement said, “It needs to pay 4% duty and Tk 3000 both per bhori to import gold. We demand to reduce the money to Tk 500. At the same time, the process of opening LC [letter of credit] must be easier. The government should establish ‘gold exchange’ or ‘gold bank’ to supply gold to the traders.”
Taking a question from the reporters, the BJA leader said, “It’s a prolonged procedure to import gold through opening LC. Usually, the gold traders buy gold from the ‘poddars’ of Tanti Bazar and ‘migrant Bangladeshis’ for doing business.”
When asked whether gold business is legal or illegal, the BJA leader said, “The gold business is legal. If it is not legal, then how we pay VAT [value added tax] to the government? The government never said we can’t buy gold from local traders or migrant Bangladeshis. We want to run gold business as per the policy which will be introduced by the government in the future.” A few days ago, the BJA called for an indefinite strike, protesting the alleged harassment by the NBR conducting drives at different jewellery shops in the capital. They withdrew their strike after holding talks with the CIID at that time.
