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Businesses to seek incentives to recoup unrest losses

REFAYET ULIAH MIRDHA
**MAJOR DEMANDS
Deferred payment facility of up to five years for term loans
Release of all due incentives as soon as possible
Important bank branches should remain open during public holidays
Businesses want special incentives for exports to eurozone**
Struck by the debilitating political limbo, businesspeople will now seek deferred payment facility of up to five years from the government for their industrial term loans to tide them over.
A deferred payment is a loan arrangement in which the borrower is allowed to make payments at a specified time in future.
“We are going to demand deferred loan payment so that our CIB (Credit Information Bureau) record remains good," said Abdus Salam Murshedy, head of the
committee formed by the business community to assess the financial loss for the blockade and shutdowns.
The business community will also demand the government release all due incentives as soon as possible such as 5 percent cash incentives on garment export, incentives for new export destinations, tax benefits and so on, he said.
The businesses will soon meet Finance
Minister AMA Muhith and put forward their demands, he added.
They will also demand that important bank branches and related offices remain open during public holidays to recover the losses from the blockade and shutdowns, ongoing since lanuaty 6.
If the finance ministry releases the due incentives, the exporters, especially the small and medium ones, will be able to cope with the current losses, Murshedy said, adding that the impact of the political crisis will show up from March.
Meanwhile, the business-
men will also demand a special incentive from the government for shipping products to the eurozone, the main export market, to remain competitive
Bangladeshi products have already lost competitiveness in the eurozone due to the devaluation of the euro and higher export performance of garment items from Pakistan, he said.
The euro now trades at less than Tk 90, which was Tk 110 even a few months ago, according to Murshedy, also a former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
For instance, the country's terry towel exports to the eurozone declined significantly after the economic union extended "GSP Plus" status to Pakistan in January 2012, he said.
So, a special incentive is needed to remain competitive in the main export destination, he said.