BGMEA seeks duty facility on mutilated garments import

Staff Reporter :
The entrepreneurs of the country’s apparel sector have sought duty facility on textile wastage and mutilated garments import, rearrangement of HS code and fixation of tariff value in local sales.
Withdrawal of 7.5 per cent and 15 per cent VAT on raw materials collection and supplying to the local recycle fiber mills is required in order to build capacity of the country’s export trade and growth, they said.
In a letter sent to the Finance Minister on Thursday, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hassan made the call.
He said recycle fiber is a rising and promising backward linkage industry of export-oriented garment sector and the use of recycle fiber is growing up day-by-day due to the obligation by brands, new rules enacted by EU and western countries.
He further said there are 23 mills in the country for producing recycle fiber and production capacity of the factories is 2,20,000 tonnes.
Moreover, 61 mills out of 330 spinning mills have become global recycle standard (GRS) certified and 14 more spinning mills are expected to get the citification soon. So, it is not possible to meet the growing demand with the locally produced garment clips of 5,77,000 tonnes.
Under this circumstance, we must import textile wastage and mutilated garments to meet the growing demand of the recycle fabrics.
The BGMEA president also said, tests of global consumers have changed and they are very much interested in circular fashion and recycled goods and circular fashion has become an important agenda of the sustainable fashion.
Our factories are reducing post-industrial wastage by using new technologies and process up gradation, he said.
Besides, we have to produce cotton fabrics by mixing with maximum 50 per cent virgin cotton or organic cotton or polestar cotton in 2025 as per the new law of the European
Union and we will get 30 per cent tax exemption, if we export garments made of recycled fabrics to EU after 2026, he said.
The tax-exemption will help us to remain competitive in the global markets, the BGMEA president said.
Following this, it is urgently needed to take initiative for the sake of continuation of export-competiveness by considering the recycling sector as deem export industry to build capacity of the apparel industry, Faruque Hassan said.