Huge amount of dollar are getting spent on importing lots of goods which are already produced in the country. According to the information of Bangladesh Bank (BB), in the fiscal year 2021-22, forty five percent of the total import expenses were incurred to these products. In total imported goods of Tk 8,900 crore of that year, minimum Tk 4,000 crore has been spent on importing these types of goods; however, the products were available in the country.
According to the export-import experts, the country is facing dollar shortage resulted from global crisis. The banks are becoming conservative in opening LCs. As the import of raw materials, machineries and essential food products was hampered, they fear the economic growth will be decreased.
The expert thinks imposing the anti-dumping tax can pave the way to save foreign currencies as well as ensure security of domestic industry.
Executive director of Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRIB) and chairman of Brac Bank, Ahsan H Mansur said, “National Board of Revenue (NBR) should have a special cell whose responsibility will be to monitor dumping of products and import of non-essential products. If necessary, anti-dumping law should be introduced to stop dumping.”
Former president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), Shams Mahmud said, “To get rid of dollar crisis, Bangladesh Bank has introduced restrictions over importing luxurious and non-essential products. Even after that there’s no shortage in availability of luxurious products in domestic market. That means the import of luxurious products hasn’t stopped even after the restriction imposed by BB.
He suggests the active role of NBR besides BB in this regard.
The experts of business sectors in the country said when the concerned businesses import huge quantity of products even after its availability in the country, then government impose anti-dumping duty. Sometimes, it might be hard to impose ant-dumping duty due to restrictions of WTO. So, if it’s hard to impose this duty, then government can impose complementary duty or controlling duty.
According to the sources, Bangladesh, who is used to import all the mobile sets earlier, now has become self-sufficient in producing world-class mobile sets. 12 mobile phone companies are now operating in the country that can provide 90% of the local demand. When, the country is about to be self-sufficient in manufacturing mobile handset, some low-priced sets are coming from China and some other countries. As a result, the government is losing foreign currency and the local entrepreneurs are falling into the risk of losing market.
Analyzing various information, it has been known that Bangladesh has been importing products like fish, woods, timber, frozen fish, tobacco, aluminum products, imitation jewelry, children toys, cement etc. which leads to spending lots of dollar.
According to the authorities concerned, government should impose extra duty or ant-dumping duty to stop and limit import of those products in which Bangladesh has been advanced and become self-sufficient. If it’s made possible, then dollar crisis will be reduced to a great extent. And the saved dollar can be used to import essential goods like fuel oil, LNG, food-products, industrial materials etc.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
