Importers of the daily essential commodities and raw materials called for proper management in the ports and an end to the harassment of the Customs and shipping agents.
They came up with the calls at the first meeting of the FBCCI standing committee on Import held on Wednesday.
Importers complained that they have been harassed by the port and Customs authority, shipping agents in order to release the imported goods resulting in extra time and money pushing the business and production cost higher.
Chittagong port’s lab lacks necessary testing facilities and only one chemical examiner is not sufficient for faster testing and certifications.
Moreover, goods are frequently sent to different university labs to be examined as the port lab is not capable, which takes more than a month causing interruption in the product supply chain, businessmen claimed.
Customs authority fines up to 300% for the unwilful mistakes in HS Code, Shipping agents also charges different fees including documentation, survey, security fees which cost additional 10 crore taka per day, members of the committee informed.
Speaking as the chief guest FBCCI Senior Vice President Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu said that the importers with less experience mainly make mistakes in HS code. Hence, he called for better study in HS code.
He further said its businessmen’s responsibility to help the government in revenue collection. Therefore, he urged businessmen to come forward in this regard.
Like India and Singapore, Bangladesh should also introduce GST instead of VAT, the Senior Vice President stated as his personal opinion. GST will help ease the process of revenue collection, decrease tax evasion, he noted.
Director In-Charge of the committee and FBCCI Vice President Md. Amin Helaly informed that Europe and USA standard products are being manufactured in Bangladesh.
Therefore, he called the businessmen to harness this capacity and ensure compliance.
The meeting was presided over by the Chairman of the committee and A2P group Mohammad Khorshed Alam.
Among others, FBCCI Director Md. Rejaul Kariem Rejnu, CIP, Rabbani Jabbar, Bijoy Kumar Kejriwal, Hafez Harun, Abu Motaleb, Md. Iqbal Shahriar, Mohammed Bazlur Rahman, Md. Khairul Huda Chopol, Committee Co-chairmen Altaf Hossain Chowdhury (Bacchu), Md. Azizur Rahman, Md. Nadimul Hakim, Syed Md. Bakhtiar were present at the meeting.
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