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No duty benefit for boulders, rods of power plants

Star Business Report
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has removed boulders and rods from the list of items eligible for duty benefits during import for being a component of power plant construction.
Firms establishing power plants around the country have been availing the facility to import materials, including prefabricated buildings and even dredgers.
Since 1997 the customs authority has been offering the privilege to public and private power producing companies to import machinery, spare parts and materials needed for erecting the plants.
However, no specific list of products was mentioned in the notification.
And in absence of clarity, products not directly related to power plants were being imported by firms based on recommendations from the Power Division.
This resulted in disputes between importers and customs officials about whether the goods should be cleared without payment of duty.
In recent times, various electricity generation firms imported steel sheets and pipes, raising concerns of revenue loss among customs officials.
A senior official of Chittagong Customs House said a power generation company wants to enjoy duty benefit to import poles and cables to transmit electricity to the national gird.
"This is not directly related to the construction of power plants. But the company says it is essential for it to transmit power," he said.
Another firm imported a dredger on grounds that it needed it to clear silt from a channel so that it could bring coal to produce electricity, he said.
To resolve the problem, the NBR sat with the commissioners of customs houses and representatives of the Power
Division mid last month.
The meeting, chaired by NBR Chairman Md Mosharaf Hossain Bhuiyan, decided to provide duty exemption only to those items which were essential for power plant construction and electricity generation.
The NBR also formed an eightmember committee to prepare a list of items that could be brought into the country duty-free to establish power plants.
The panel, comprising representatives
of Power Division, public and private electricity producing companies and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, will prepare the list by reviewing existing notifications related to duty privilege for setting up power plants.
"We hope to come up with a list within a month. The list will clear which items are related to power plants and which are not and thus remove confusion," said a senior official of the NBR.