Business Desk :
Furniture industry owners have demanded to reduce supplementary duty and complete withdrawal of regulatory duty on raw material import. They made the demand today at the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of
Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) Standing Committee on Furniture, Particle Board and related issues at the first meeting of the committee held at the FBCCI office in the city, said a press release. Furniture industry pays 20 per cent supplementary duty and 3 per cent regulatory duty on imported raw materials. The entrepreneurs now want to change this provision in the coming budget, they opined.
The speakers said, although 15 per cent incentive is given for furniture export, it was not an incentive, rather a kind of a duty drawback as unlike other export-oriented industries, they don’t enjoy zero duty on import of the raw materials. Therefore, the government has arranged this incentive to return the money paid as tax and duty.
The businessmen urged the government to provide at least 20 per cent incentive in the next fiscal year. Informing that the total tax incidence in the furniture sector is 89 per cent, they also demanded to reduce this tax in the new budget.
Entrepreneurs say that with the government’s policy support, it will be possible to create more jobs in the industry in the future than ready-made garments. At the same time, the speakers raised the issue of harassment of tax officials and demanded an end to this suffering. FBCCI Vice President M A Momen attended the meeting as the chief guest. He asked the standing committee to identify the inconsistencies in the tax structure of the furniture industry and inform the FBCCI. Vice President MA Momen assured that the FBCCI would work with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to address these discrepancies in the forthcoming budget. Earlier, Director in charge of the committee and MD of Akhter Furniture K M Akhtaruzzaman said Bangladesh’s furniture exports would increase further if Bonded warehouse facility was given.
Chairman of the Standing Committee and chairman of the Partex Star Group Aziz Al-Kaiser cited high taxes as the biggest obstacle to furniture exports. Co-Chairman of the Standing Committee MD of Hatil Furniture Selim H Rahman, Nadia Furniture MD Karim Majumder, Partex Furniture Head of Business Md Shah Alam Monshi, FBCCI Secretary General Mohammad Mahfuzul Hoque and other members of the committee were also present at the meeting.
