The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association on Saturday urged the government to make the apparel export business free from ‘harassment’ by officials of the National Board of Revenue.
During a views exchange meeting with reporters at the Sonargaon Hotel in the capital Dhaka on the day, the newly elected BGMEA board said that harassment by customs officials at ports and bond facilities was disrupting business operations.
BGMEA president SM Mannan Kochi urged the government to take legal action against the customs and bond officials who were impeding the export business through such harassment.
He also urged the government to extend the existing cash incentives for readymade garment exports until 2029 to help the sector achieve its $100 billion export target by 2030.
Mannan observed that Bangladesh would graduate from the least developed country status in 2026, and according to World Trade Organisation rules, the government can continue providing incentives to the sector until 2029.
He warned that if the government stops offering the incentives before 2029, the RMG sector would lose its competitiveness and the export target would remain unfulfilled.
The BGMEA president demanded that the tax at source on exports be reduced from the current 1 per cent to 0.5 per cent for the next five years.
He also urged the government to lower the tax on cash incentives from 10 per cent to 5 per cent in the national budget for the forthcoming financial year 2024-25.
Mannan sought cash incentives for exports of non-cotton garments and a reduction in income tax on the export retention quota from 20 per cent to 10 per cent in the next budget.
The BGMEA president also stated that his board would work to improve relations with workers in the RMG sector.
‘We have already requested the prime minister to allocate a special fund in the upcoming budget to provide essential commodities at subsidised rates for the workers,’ Mannan said.
Mannan urged that the government to differ its decision for not giving utility connections to the factories set up outside industrial zones.
‘If the decision is implemented, entrepreneurs would incur losses as good numbers of factories have already invested hundreds of crore of money outside the industrial zones,’ he said.
Dhaka North City Corporation mayor and former BGMEA president Atiqul Islam, former presidents of the trade body Abdus Salam Murshedy and Md Siddiqur Rahman, current senior vice-president Khandoker Rafiqul Islam, vice-presidents Arshad Jamal Dipu, Md Nasir Uddin, Abdullah Hil Rakib and Rakibul Alam Chowdhury, and directors Mohammad Sohel Sadat, Md Ashikur Rahman Tuhin, Shams Mahmud, Rajiv Chowdhury, Nusrat Bari Asha, Md Mohiuddin Rubel and Md Nurul Islam, among others, were present in the meeting.Â