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Stimulus prompts mixed reactions

Star Business Report
Exporters expressed unhappiness over the latest government stimulus package announced yesterday, but a trade expert termed it encouraging and helpful to the industry.
The exporters whose shipments grow by 10 percent over the previous year will qualify for the incentives - a plan that created both confusion and unhappiness among businessmen.
"It will be meaningless if the incentive goes only to the factories that achieve additional export growth from a year ago," said Fazlui Hoque, president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), at a press conference.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith announced die stimulus package worth Tk 1,000 crore to help garments and shipbuilding sectors remain competitive amid the global economic crisis.
In April, the government rolled out a stimulus package worth Tk 3,500 crore to different sectors.
Hoque said he finds no justification for extending the package to the growing exporters and not to those who lose out to global recession.
"I think it's a mistake," the BKMEA boss told reporters. He hoped the government would make amendments soon.
Referring to the recommendations, he said the proposal was to provide 5 percent incentives to exporters that achieve up to 10 percent growth over the previous year.
At a press conference, called shortly after the announcement of the stimulus, Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said the package was "unexpected" and will not help exporters return from losses.
"We expected much more from the government. We did not expect such a complicated package from the government," Murshedy said.
He said exporters demanded withdrawal of the licence renewal fees for captive power generators until improvement of the power supply.
In line with yesterday's announcement, the captive generator renewal fees will be given from the stimulus package, which means industrialists will not to have pay the fees from November 1,2009 to June 30,2010.
But both associations welcomed some of the decisions announced in the package.
Hoque welcomed the government's move to subsidise 10 percent of their electricity bills.
Murshedy thanked the government for giving loan rescheduling facilities, but said it would have been better if it had been given for a few more years.
The BGMEA president also welcomed the move to give cash incentives for new export destinations. He said such a facility should continue for five years at a rate of 5 percent
He said the stimulus package would not help small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as several conditions have been attached to the assistance. "It will be difficult for the SMEs to meet the conditions included in the package."
Prof Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue, however welcomed the package saying that it will encourage local exporters to explore new markets.
"Subsidies on electricity and captive generators will reduce the cost of production,” he added.
But he asked the government to clarify the incentives offered for the exporters. "It is not clear whether a firm has to achieve 10 percent growth over its export a year ago or it will be given only on the 10 percent of total exports.n
He also said the package will be useful to the small and medium factories.