Foreign firms’ done steel product imports should be taxed
Native steel building makers yesterday urged the federal government to impose a duty found on the import of done steel products by international companies to guard the domestic industry.
In addition they wanted the introduction of a uniform duty on the import of pre-fabricated raw materials of steel building products in the ultimate cover the incoming fiscal year.
The Steel Building Makers Association (SBMA) of Bangladesh built the requirements through a virtual post-spending budget press conference from its office on Pragati Sarani in Dhaka.
The duty-free benefit, which foreign companies enjoy for import of finished steel products for the establishment of factories inside economical zones, ought to be withdrawn, said Jowher Rizvi, SBMA president.
They bring in steel products from overseas although local manufacturers have been producing such products of global standards inside Bangladesh for some time, he said.
Some international companies have been importing surplus finished steel goods exploiting the duty-no cost benefit and supplying those products to the wide open industry, creating unfair competition for the neighborhood manufacturers, he said.
There are 30 local prefabricated or infrastructure steel makers in Bangladesh, each individual manufacturing specific items and immediately contributing to the country's infrastructure development.
"If the problem continues for years, it'll be tough for the local steel producers to survive. Hence, we urge the government to withdraw the work benefit and invite us to import metal raw materials with zero duty."
Native industries are providing necessary infrastructure materials to the federal government and the exclusive sector and helping them to save lots of considerable time and money.
"We can meet up with the whole country's demand."
The industry for recycleables of prefabricated steel setting up has suffered a substantial financial loss due to the outbreak of coronavirus as 95 % of the industrial recycleables are imported from China, Rizvi said.
Regarding to SBMA, the quickly growing prefabricated sector confronted severe challenges as a result of postponement of infrastructure production work and failing woefully to recover charges of completed projects because of the pandemic.
The prefabricated sector have been annually growing on an average of 15 to 20 % in the last 10 years and is now a Tk 4,500 crore-market, up from Tk 2,000 crore a decade ago, according to SBMA.
The country's twelve-monthly demand for prefabricated steel is approximately 10 lakh tonnes and local manufacturers could produce only 4 to 5 lakh tonnes. "The others originates from India, China, Australia, Japan, Korea and Taiwan."
Steel infrastructure began to show up in Bangladesh in 1985, with the components being initially imported.
In 2001, local entrepreneurs first took up the initiative to build steel infrastructure independently, according to industry insiders.
The commercial importers pay 5 % customs duty for the import of recycleables of steel goods, whereas the rate hits 25 % for local steel manufacturers, said Md Rashed Khan, general secretary of SBMA.
"This duty disparity isn't good for the entire industry. This is why we sought a uniform duty composition for the import of natural material for prefabricated market."
The customs duty for native manufacturers should be significantly less than what the commercial importers purchase the sake of the country's industrialisation, he said.
