Furniture makers on Tuesday demanded reduction in the level of 20 percent supplementary duty and waiver of 3 percent regulatory duty on imported raw materials.
They made the demand at the first meeting of the FBCCI Standing Committee on Furniture, Particle Board and related issues held at the FBCCI office.
The speakers said that although a 15 percent incentive is given for furniture export, it was more like a duty drawback as unlike other export-oriented industries, they don’t enjoy zero duty on import of the raw materials.
Therefore, the government has arranged this incentive to return the money paid as tax and duty.
However, the businessmen urged the government to hike incentives in the next fiscal year, to 20 from 15%.
Informing that the total tax incidence in the furniture sector is 89 percent, they also demanded greater relief in the new budget.
Entrepreneurs say that with the government’s policy support, it will be possible to create more jobs in the industry in the future besides ready-made garments.
At the same time, the speakers raised the issue of harassment of tax officials and demanded an end to this suffering.
FBCCI Vice President MA Momen was present as the Chief Guest at the meeting.
He asked the standing committee to identify the inconsistencies in the tax structure of the furniture industry and inform the FBCCI.
The Vice President assured that the FBCCI would work with the NBR to address these discrepancies in the forthcoming budget.
Earlier, K M Akhtaruzzaman, director in charge of the committee and MD of Akhter Furniture, said Bangladesh’s furniture exports would increase further if Bonded warehouse facility was given.
Aziz Al-Kaiser, chairman of the Standing Committee and chairman of the Partex Star Group, cited high taxes as the biggest obstacle to furniture exports.
Co-Chairman of the Standing Committee and MD of Hatil Furniture Selim H Rahman, Nadia Furniture MD Karim Majumder, Partex Furniture Head of Business Md. Shah Alam Monshi, FBCCI Secretary General Mohammad Mahfuzul Hoque and other members of the committee.
Source: United News of Bangladesh