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Central bonded warehouse to destroy local textiles

Textile engineers tell pre-budget briefing

STAR BUSINESS REPORT
Strongly opposing garment exporters' demand, textile engineers yesterday said a central bonded warehouse will destroy Bangladesh's textile sector.
All export-oriented readymade garment factories have their own bonded warehouse and the government could not stop leakage from these sources, they said. So, allowing a central bonded warehouse will seriously hurt local backward linkage industries, they added.
However, the textile engineers favoured a special arrangement for only those fabrics, which are not produced locally, synthetic fabric in particular.
The leaders of the Institution of Textile Engineers & Technologies, Bangladesh (ITET) were speaking at a pre-budget press briefing held at a hotel in Dhaka.
In the face of tight competition in the global market, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on last
Thursday urged the government to set up a central bonded warehouse to address lead-time problem.
The textile engineers said 99 per cent of the fabrics in the wholesale and retail markets are illegally imported.
A section of government officials are involved in these businesses, they said mentioning around 800 bond licenses of the garment industries have not been renewed or cancelled.
"In order to reduce lead-time problem, steps should have been taken to produce fabrics locally but unfortunately this did not happen," Ariful Haque Khan, secretary general of the ITET, told reporters.
Abdul Matin, president, Syed Fakhrul Hasan Murad, senior vice president, and other leaders of ITET were present at the briefing.
Ahead of the next fiscal's budget, the ITET placed a set of recommendations to the government and if these are considered, they felt, local entrepreneurs would be encouraged.
The process for sanctioning bank loans with 30 per cent equity
participation should be easier. Interest rates for capital investment should not be more than five per cent while working capital six per cent, the engineers recommended.
Gas and power tariffs for export-oriented industries should be cut by 50 per cent. A flat rate should be introduced instead of peak and off-peak rates.
In order to cut cost of production of locally produced fabrics, minimum charge for gas should be 12 hours instead of existing 16 hours, the ITET leaders suggested.
Taxes, duties, advance income tax, value added tax on dyes, chemicals, spare parts imports should be withdrawn, they demanded.
The professionals felt farmers should be given subsidy so that they are encouraged to produce cotton locally.
It is essential to expand the export market, they observed mentioning there are big markets in Japan, Africa, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Middle Eastern countries.