Businesses want subsidy on fuel

Staff Reporter :
The businesses want subsidies on fuel oil instead of price adjustment to cope with the pressure of inflation, to increase their own capacity and to survive in the current global situation.
Claiming that crisis has arisen in the country’s financial sector due to increase in non-performing loans, they said that they are not in favour of the loan defaulters and also don’t want waiver of it.
Md Saiful Islam, President of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka (MCCI), said came up remarks while speaking at views exchanging meeting at his office in the city on Saturday.
He said that the government had recently announced that it would withdraw subsidy on fuel oil and price of it would be adjusted with the global markets prices at least quarterly as per the prescription of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“But the pandemic is not yet over and the Russia-Ukraine war is ongoing. Under this situation, if the subsidy on fuel oil is withdrawn, the businesses will remain under pressure, the production cost will increase further and the ability to compete will decrease,” the MCCI president said.
“So, we want to continue the subsidy on fuel oil instead of adjustment of it prices this year,” the MCCI president added.
Regarding the existing complexities of opening letters of credit (LCs) for import of raw materials, Saiful said, “There is no ban on import of raw materials for production from Bangladesh Bank but we are not able to open LC as easily as before due to dollar crisis.” “It is taking times to open LCs for import of raw materials as the banks are not able to sufficient dollars support for it,” he added.
The MCCI president also said that the government should make the process of getting trade licence easy and extend its tenure to five years.
Every business needs to take several licences and the process of getting licence and its renewal is a complex task for the entrepreneurs, he said.
“There is no binding to renew a trade licence every year anywhere in the world. So, we urge the government to extend the time for the renewal to five years,” he added. In the rural areas, the process of getting a trade licence or renewing it becomes a nightmare, he said.
For the ease of doing business, the government can issue all the licences for five years, he said adding “The government can continue inspection and can cancel the licence anytime in case of non-compliance.”
But the licensing process should be made easy and business-friendly, he added. Regarding the harassment by NBR’s officials, the MCCI president said, “Revenue officers at the field-level decide fates (of businesses). The NBR’s goodwill is being eroded because of this.”
MCCI Vice-President Habullah N Karim and Secretary General Faruque Ahmed, among others, spoke at the event.