The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), which is the apex garment makers’ body in Bangladesh, has sought a timeframe of three years to pay back loans.
Media reports maintained this adding that the BGMEA President Faruque Hassan while addressing a virtual press conference said this even as he, reportedly, presented a set of recommendations to the Government on behalf of the trade body, ahead of the national budget for FY22 and the holy festival Eid Ul Fitr.
Faruque Hassan, reportedly, also sought reducing the tax at source from the current 0.50 per cent to 0.25 per cent for the export-oriented RMG sector and keeping the same fixed for a period of five years even as he urged the Government to keep special allocation in the budget so as to keep the bank liabilities of the affected industries out of the purview of the single borrower exposure limit.
He also sought allowing rescheduling of loans by those factories to restore their operations and thus provide those units loans at 5 per cent interest rate for the extended period apart from other demands like increasing the stimulus to 5 per cent from the existing 4 per cent on export to new and non-traditional markets to offset the shock from the coronavirus pandemic, fixing the income tax on cash incentives at zero per cent from the existing 10 per cent, bringing under the stimulus package the micro and medium export-oriented enterprises which could export up to US $ 10 million, forming special fund for the micro and medium enterprises to recoup their losses from the COVID-19 pandemic and thus restore their production, providing 10 per cent special incentive on export of non-cotton RMG to keep up the competitive edge, etc.
