DHAKA, April 17, 2019 (BSS) – The local mobile manufacturers want long-
term policy support to help flourish the sector as many local companies have
already set up mobile manufacturing factories in the country.
The Bangladesh Mobile Phone Manufacturers Association (BMPMA) made the
demand during a pre-budget meeting today with the National Board of Revenue
(NBR) held at the NBR building in the city.
NBR Chairman Md Mosharraf Hussain Bhuiyan chaired the meeting.
Speaking on the occasion, BMPMA President Ruhul Alam Al Mahbub said around
30 percent of the country’s mobile phone demand is being produced internally
and this rate would increase to 90 percent by 2020.
He also hoped that Bangladesh would be able to go for mobile phone exports
within a shorter period.
“If the mobile manufacturers are allowed to manufacturer mother boards of
mobile phone sets, then many big companies would come here and set up their
factories while backward linkage institutions of this sector would also be
created,” he said seeking policy support for 10 years in this sector.
Mahbub also demanded for raising the import duty to make the local
companies capable of producing smart phones side by side pursuing strict
monitoring to stop import of smart phones through under invoicing.
In response, the NBR Chairman assured the Association leaders to provide
policy support in this regard saying that a letter would be sent to the BTRC
to check under invoicing in importing smart phones.
In another meeting, the leaders of Bangladesh Association of Software and
Information Services (BASIS) demanded of the government to provide corporate
tax exemption certificates to the Information Technology (IT) and Information
Technology Enabled Services (ITES) institutions by 2024.
In response, the NBR Chairman said the existing one-year corporate tax
exemption certificate to the IT and ITES institutions would be extended to
three years.
In another pre-budget parley, President of Electrical Merchandise
Manufacturers Association President Enayet Hossain Chowdhury said that the
demand of energy-efficient LED lights is increasing day by day and demanded
of the government to provide duty-free facility to this sector for the next
five years on import of LED light equipments to mushroom such assemble
industries.
The leaders of the Bangladesh Refrigeration Manufacturers Association
demanded for separating the duty on production and assemble of this industry.
President of Bangladesh Computer Samity M Sahid-ul-Monir demanded for
relaxing the conditions on import of computer’s hard wares.