In a high-level meeting, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) of Bangladesh has decided to issue an Online Utilisation Declaration (e-UD).
The decision was taken at a meeting with apex organisations — Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) and many more.
The meeting was chaired by NBR chairman, also secretary to the Internal Resource Division (IRD) Md Nojibur Rahman. BGMEA and BKMEA urged NBR to introduce the new system for UDs in order to facilitate smooth and hassle-free verification of the documents at the ports.
According to officials, e-UD will be launched integrating the data of two major apparel exporters’ association with that of the NBR. A working committee will be formed in this regard, including representatives from the exporters and the NBR, to frame a plan for implementation of the online system.
Currently, the verification of UD’s is a tedious process in which the customs officials have to examine the manually submitted UDs by entering the server of the apparel associations. The issuance of e-UDs will expedite the process of exports and imports through the customs ports, while also checking for forgery of documents and abuse of duty-free import facility by apparel exporters.