Shah Alam Nur :High-priced mobile cell phone sets of international brands brought in illegally have occupied nearly 40 per cent of the total local market due to what the traders said high tax on imports of the item.They said the government exchequer is being deprived of around Tk 15 billion in revenue for the informal trade through travel routes.”We are frightened of the situation as it is going out of control day by day. And no doubt taxation is the only reason behind this,” Aminur Rashed, Chairman and CEO of Symphony, a leading brand of mobile sets, told The New Nation on Tuesday.He said most high-priced sets come through illegal channels as the international brands like Apple, HTC or Blackberry do not have distribution networks in Bangladesh.An official of a law-enforcement agency said apart from the matter of revenue loss, illegally brought sets are also risky for the country’s law and order as criminals always prefer unauthorised mobile sets. “New online shops should be brought under tight supervision as illegally brought sets are randomly traded through those shops,” he suggested while speaking about the ‘virtual bazaar’ in the fast-emerging knowledge economy.According to Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association (BMPIA), annually more than 40 per cent mobile-phone sets enter the country illegally.Visiting different mobile markets this correspondent found that the selling of unauthorised cell-phone sets of global brands like Apple, Samsung, HTC, Blackberry, Sony and Nokia is being held without any warranty.The markets having mobile hubs include Bashundhara Shopping Mall, Dhaka Stadium Market, Eastern Plaza, Motaleb Plaza, Shah Ali Plaza and Baitul View.Recently, the law enforcing agencies in an unanticipated raid have confiscated around one thousand smart phones worth Tk 20 million from the capital’s Bashundhara City.Ahsan-Ul-Haque, a shopkeeper at Rangdhonu Shopping Mall at Pallabi, said a large number of high-priced international brand electronic goods, including mobile handsets, come through illegal channels as international brands like Apple, HTC or Blackberry don’t have distribution networks in Bangladesh.”Many local people who go abroad and bring the products in their personal luggage to evade tax supply these goods,” said Faisal Alim, Vice-President of BMPIA.He said for such illegal practice the government is losing revenue worth some Tk 200 million every month as more than 0.45 million illegally brought mobile phone sets enter the country a month.The BMPIA data show the import demand for handsets is about 22 million. Of this, 12 million sets are imported legally while the rest come through illegal conduits.Nizam Uddin Jitu, President of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Businessmen Association, said an authorised dealer has to pay a total of 22 per cent tax, including duty and advance income tax. “But the dishonest traders import the cell-phone sets through illegal channels for evading tax and duty,” he said.Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Secretary Md Sarowar Alam said, “Besides the lack of data on illegally brought sets, we have also a lack of efficient manpower to monitor the smuggling of mobile phone sets.”
