Govt hoping industries will be self-sufficient before LDC graduation

Business Desk :
The government is earnestly hoping that industries learn how to operate without tariff protection before Bangladesh’s LDC graduation, as early as FY24.
Sources said that the government has planned to phase out protective trade taxes from next fiscal year budget, as the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is likely to waive duties like supplementary duty (SD) and regulatory duty (RD) on import of fish, frozen steaks, some fabrics such as T-shirt, jacket and other men’s-wear items in FY24 in the first phase.
The NBR has sorted out more than 2,000 tariff lines to waive SD and RD by FY26 — the graduating year.
More than 200 of the products, which are currently under 20% SD and 3% RD, may see cuts in the upcoming budget.
These two duties have been imposed to help the local industry stay competitive by way of checking influx of imported products at cheaper prices.
Official sources said that the government has devised a three-year plan until FY26 to cut down SD and RD by rotation starting from the next budget.
The customs authority would waive RD from 47 categories of products in FY25 and SD from 91 products in phases.
At the import stage, the NBR may not bring any changes on import duty of reconditioned cars.
However, import taxes on elevator, escalator, and micro-woven may see an increase, while local soap, and sanitary-pad industry may enjoy extension of the tax breaks. Officials also said that some of the fiscal measures have been framed targeting lowering inflationary pressure on people while some of the measures targeted expansion of the tax net.