The cost of import and export in Bangladesh is significantly higher than India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore due to inefficient customs clearance and uncompetitive logistics services.
Former member of Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission Mostafa Abid Khan pointed out the matter in his key note speech at a seminar on the 鈥楻eforms in customs, income tax, and VAT management to address the LDC graduation challenges鈥� in the capital on Monday.
The 鈥楽upport to sustainable graduation project鈥� undertaken by the Economic Relations Division organised the event at the NEC Conference Room at Agargaon.
Abid Khan, the manager of the project, said that the efficiency of the customs clearance process, competence and quality of logistics services as well as the quality of the trade and transport infrastructure in the country were inferior compared with India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore, referring to findings of the World Development Indicators 2023 by the World Bank.
Highlighting the findings of various impact assessments conducted recently, he added that the country鈥檚 overall exports would increase by 7.4 per cent if the time consumed in customs clearance at ports could be cut by a day.
鈥楨asing the customs procedures can boost the competitiveness of domestic products by at least 5 per cent,鈥� he said.
Finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed was chief guest of the seminar, arranged to take stakeholder opinions ahead of Bangladesh鈥檚 graduation from the least developed countries鈥� bloc from November 2026.
The finance adviser in his address emphasised that increasing the National Board of Revenue鈥檚 efficiency was a prerequisite for achieving business growth.
He called for increasing the competitiveness of local businesses ahead of the LDC graduation through maintaining labour and environmental compliance.聽聽
The finance adviser also said that the private sector must be proactive alongside the government in meeting the LDC graduation challenges while putting emphasis on effective implementation of the Smooth Transition Strategy adopted in November 2024 by the now ousted Awami League regime.
The graduation will come with the losses of duty-free and quota-free market access in some major export markets. Besides, the government will have to phase out providing subsidies to export products. The LDC graduation will also make imperative reforms in income tax, VAT management and customs procedures.
Commerce adviser Sk Bashir Uddin and NBR chairman Abdur Rahman Khan also spoke at the seminar chaired by Economic Relation Division secretary Shahriar Kader Siddiky.
Bashir Uddin emphasised enhancing the efficiency of local businesses to effectively deal with the potential challenges the LDC graduation will come with, also while called for bringing the small and medium enterprises under the VAT net and introducing a uniform tax rate system.
Private sector representatives participating in the seminar called for deferring LDC graduation for a few years to give Bangladesh time to prepare for the challenges it would come with.聽
Chattogram Port Authority chairman SM Moniruzzaman, NBR Members AKM Badiul Alam, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry senior vice president of Razeev H Chowdhury and Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association president Kabir Ahmed, among others, shared their opinions.
