NBR for expanding bonded warehouse facility to non-RMG exporters

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Economic Reporter :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman, Md Mosharraf Hussain Bhuiyan, Sunday said that the board has started a thorough review of the existing bonded warehouse facility in a bid to expand it for the non-readymade garment exporters.
“Around 85 percent of the export is dependent on RMG export thanks to policy support of the government,” he said.
The NBR chairman said these at an orientation programme arranged for the members of the Economic Reporters Forum (ERF).
The programme, titled ‘Tariff modernisation and expansion of bonded warehouse facilitates to non-RMG’ exporters’, was organised by the ERF in collaboration with Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund II (BICF) of the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
NBR chairman inaugurated the programme on ERF office premises. Policy Research Institute (PRI) chairman Dr Zaidi Sattar, World Bank Group’s private sector specialist, Macro economics, trade and investment (MTI) global practice Nusrat Nahid Babi and Mashiur Rahman, joint commissioner of Customs Bond Commissionarate, NBR, among others, spoke on the occasion.
The NBR chairman said now time has come to diversify export-basket and expand the duty-free facility to other export-oriented sector.
He said leather and jute exporters are in the priority list for expansion of bonded warehouse facility.
Mosharraf urged the newsmen to unmask the abusers of the duty-free benefit under bonded warehouse facility.
He said local industries are bearing the brunt as duty-free products are flooded in the market due to abuse of the facility by vested quarters.
Responding to a query, he said punitive measures has been taken against some 30 companies in Dhaka and 29 companies in Chattogram in recent months for abuse of the bonded warehouse facility.
“Those companies failed to show export using those duty-free items. Bond license of the companies might be canceled,” he said.
Dr Sattar said high protective duty is working as ‘anti-export bias’ as industries are focusing on domestic-market rather than export.
“Economic growth is not possible on the basis of only domestic market expansion. Employment would not be generated if export market is not expanded,” he added.
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