To enable maintain the export chain smooth amidst the COVID-19 situation, Bangladesh garment exporters have urged the country’s National Board of Revenue (NBR) to exempt them from submitting VAT clearance certificate to private Inland Container Depots (ICDs) for releasing goods.
Reports maintained this adding a statement issued by the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has stated that submission of VAT clearance certificate will cause delay in the export chain even as the garment exporters also underlined that they have for long been using the ICDs for imported raw materials without issuing any VAT certificate while adding that VAT clearance certificate, during this period of pandemic-induced crisis, would impact export earnings.
Currently 18 private ICDs adjacent to the Chittagong Port, reportedly, handle all export containers and around 23 per cent of import containers even if the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), in a letter written to the NBR has recommended increasing the number of items to be released from ICDs and gradually bringing all imported items under the scheme with the aim to reduce container congestion that at times plagues the port.