March 29, 2024, 10:39 am


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Published:
2019-04-18 20:59:55 BdST

NBR chief hints separate policies for manufacturers, assemblers


National Board of Revenue Chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan on Wednesday said separate revenue policies would be formed in upcoming fiscal 2019-20 for the manufacturing sector and the assembling sector to protect the local entrepreneurs.

“We have noticed that some traders who only assemble goods importing finished components are taking privileges enjoyed by the manufacturers, which hampers the local manufacturing sector,” he said.

“NBR is going to make separate policies so that manufacturers and assemblers no longer get the same advantages,” the NBR chairman said.

He came up with the statements while addressing a pre-budget talk with importers, manufactures and exporters relating to the country's electric and electronics sector at his office in the capital. 

Mosharraf said they would maintain three types of rules — one for importing products, another for manufacturing and the other for assembling.

Hinting that assemblers would get little more advantages in comparison with importers, he urged traders to go for complete manufacturing.

Referring to the country's exports, the NBR chief said it needed diversification of products. “Still we are depending on readymade garment (RMG) sector, which is totally risky,” he said, expressing his fear that if the sector fell in any case, because of other country's advancement, the country would suffer very much.

Urging traders to focus more on exports, he said that the country needed more products in the export basket to increase earning of foreign currencies.

Mentioning the example of Vietnam, he said that apart from RMG and other products, the country now earned more than $60 billion from mobile phone exports.  

If Bangladesh could raise volume of exports of other products, the country’s export earnings would go up rapidly, he added. 

“We will provide more advantages including bonded warehouse and tax exemption for exports,” the NBR chairman said, adding that all export products would enjoy the same privileges.

He said NBR was not only revenue collecting agency but also the authorities for making policy and protecting local business. 

It incentivised the potential sectors and helped industrialization through policy supports, he mentioned.

He, however, said the country's GDP was rising and the growth was not a fake one. 

The reason behind this growth was the rapid rise of entrepreneurship, he added.

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