The country’s apparel makers and exporters have urged the government to allow duty-free import of fire safety equipment and pre-fabricated building materials for relocating their factories and maintaining fire safety standard.
They have also requested the government not to impose any further tax at source on cash incentives, rather to lower the tax at source to give a relief to this sector, which had incurred a huge loss due to political unrest in the last quarter of 2013.
Several organisations including BGMEA, BKMEA, BTMA, Bangladesh Garment Accessories and Packaging Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BEGAPMEA), Knitting Owner Association and Bangladesh Jute Goods Association and other apparel related sectors placed those demands before a pre-budget meeting with National Board of Revenue (NBR) held yesterday at NBR headquarters in the capital.
NBR member (custom) Forid Uddin, who presided over the meeting, however, assured the leaders of various organisations of considering their demands before preparing the budget for the next fiscal.
Attending the meeting, BGMEA president Atiqul Islam urged the government to allow duty-free imports of LED bulb, pre-fabricated building materials and fire equipment to make the RMG sector safe, secured, risk-free and environment-friendly.
A good number of factories need to be relocated as the Accord and Alliance found those faulty. Besides, there are still more factories, doing business in shared buildings also have to relocated within a stipulated time frame, said Atiqul.
BGMEA data shows that around 40% factories are housed in shared buildings, where 1.5m workers are employed.
BGMEA president claimed that the buyers pulled out orders worth US$110m from 37 factories, which was identified through a survey conducted over 419 factories across the country.
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) first vice president Mohammad Hatem urged the government to withdraw VAT on gas, electricity and water.
He also requested the government to extend the deadline to six months from existing three months for submitting the audit documents by the export oriented factory owners.
“It would not be possible for the factory owners to make the sector sustainable, if the government does not allow duty-free import of the safety equipments,” said Hatem.
According to an estimate of BGMEA, around 1,200 RMG factories need to install sprinklers, while 3,000 other factories have to install fire doors as per the requirement of the Accord and Alliance, which would cost over Tk2,500 crore.
Bangladesh Textiles Mills Association (BTMA) President Jahangir Alamin urged the government for keeping the existing 15% income tax on profits and cutting the tax at source in case of trading cottons through local letter of credits (LCs).
He also demanded the government for allowing duty-free import of flux, filaments and pet chips as its basic raw materials, which adds value and would contribute to the nation and help to establish new factories.
BEGAPMEA president Rafez Alam Chowdhry urged the government to allow them to issue Utilisation Permission (UP) as it would help them to reduce their production cost and harassment as well. He also said the organisation has already installed software and developed infrastructural system.