Finance minister stresses reduction in business costs
Staff Reporter :
Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on Friday laid emphasis on fully automated customs process to reduce the cost and time of doing business.
“One of the main functions of customs is trade facilitation. Customs will become truly smart following the continuation of Smart Bangladesh announced by the Prime Minister. To reduce the cost of import and export, attention should be paid to full automation,” the minister said.
He was addressing a seminar organized by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) marking the ‘International Customs Day 2024’ at it headquarter in the capital on Friday.
Mahmood Ali said NBR is working as the main driving force of the economic progress of Bangladesh by attracting foreign investment and protecting the local industries.
Referring to one of the responsibilities of customs to prevent money laundering, the finance minister said that it is very important to increase the capacity of customs to fulfill this responsibility.
He hoped that customs will pay special attention to this end.
Suggesting NBR to make trade easier, he said, “Without making trade easier, it is not possible to reduce the cost and time of doing business.”
NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem said, “We expense less comparing to other countries to collect revenue. So, we must pay attention reading this to increase revenues.”
He further said after the LDC graduation we must withdraw the existing incentives from various sectors. So, the industries should initiative to increase their capacity to deal with the situation.
“Earlier, 95 per cent of the total tax revenue was earned from customs, but the earnings reduced to 27-28 per cent. It may decline further in coming days,” the NBR chief said.
“Officials are currently receiving around 17,000 shipping bills per day, but the number was only 3000 in 2010. Despite the surge in export-import activities, revenue earnings from the sector decreased instead of increasing. It means we are providing tax subsidies to the local industries,” he added.
