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Taxes on ingot under fire

Prices of aluminium utensils will increase
Exemption of dutyxon aluminium scrap and imposition of 17 per cent fresh ta/ on aluminium ingot has been labelled by the utensil manufacturers as a wrong policy of the government in helping the poor cyclone-hit people.
Talking to UNB on Tuesday they cautioned that the measure would, on contrary, lead to sharp Increase In prices of aluminium utensils instead of making it easily available.
The new budget proposed to exempt Import duty on aluminium scrap and sheet with an objective to make the utensils available to the cyclone battered coastal population.
Utensil manufacturers said neither aluminium scrap nor
sheet is used as raw materials for its production.
Only aluminium ingot, which has been brought under fresh taxes, is used as raw materials for the essential commodity. they added.
Terming the new measure
"unjustified". M A Bari Talukder, President of Bangladesh Aluminium Manufacturers Association said it would further plunge the sector. already netted with crisis, into a virtual extinction.
The sector has long been regarded as a priority sector and until now there existed exemption of sales tax on ingot import, he said adding that the product was also free from excise duty.
But. henceforth, VAT will be imposed on the sector at the rate 15 per cent leading to rise in retail price of the utensils by about 2- per cent.
With VAT, total tax including 20 per cent Import duty would now stand at 35 per cent. Industrial importers till now are to pay only 18 per cept duty on import of ingot.
Price hike of locally made products would make way for smuggling of Indian alumlniurr. utensils, industrialists cautioned.
Manufacturers said about 7o per cent of the country's nearly 400 aluminium utensil manufacturing units were closed down during the last couple of years due to increasing prices of aluminium Ingot in International market
The rest 25 per cent units are now running with only 40 per cent capacity utilization.
Manufacturers also feared that the fresh duty on the sector would now lead the age-old sector to a total extinction leaving its more than 15.000 work force into unemployment.