Bangladesh - Tariff value list for import duty to be changed

UNB, Dhaka

The government is making some changes to the tariff- value list for import duty on some regular items to avert under-invoicing and manipulation by the pre-shipment inspection companies in the certification of imports.

Under-invoicing by importers and unclean Clean Report of Findings (CRF) given by the foreign inspection firms are widely blamed for massive revenue leakage and even siphoning money out of the country.

The items coming under the revised list of tariffs include batteries (alkaline and non-alkaline), biscuits, jet fuel and the like, National Board of Revenue (NBR) sources said.

“Changes in tariff value for some regular items are essential as the suspected under-invoicing and allegation against the PSI agents issuing CRF increased in the recent times,” one NBR official told UNB. The tariff value is a document where the NBR-stated value of an imported item with HS Code is mentioned so the importer could not pay lower import duty or the PSI agents could not produce false CRF.

The NBR official said that as per the existing rules the customs officials have to accept the CRF provided by the PSI agents to the importers. The customs officials have nothing to say in this matter unless the officials have strong evidence that the PSI agents cited wrong or fabricated price in the ‘clean report’.

“If a customs official challenged the CRF, then the importer went to the court,” said the NBR official about the dilemma, adding that already more than 16,000 cases, mostly customs-related, are pending with courts. The logjam of cases left more than Tk 6,500 crore stuck-up in the tangles.

About 78 per cent of these cases are customs-related, while the rest involve income tax and Value Added Tax (VAT).

The government is now in a move to avoid such cases as it blocked huge money supposed to go into the national exchequer for public welfare.

Responding to a query, the NBR official said that the prices of the items on the tariff-value list will be higher for those items which are produced in the country to protect the local industries.

In this connection, he said, “The price of imported biscuits will definitely be no less than that of the locally produced biscuits as the country has huge expertise in this sector.”

The NBR official said that the tariff value will be imposed in line with the government’s decision to protect the local industry.

The government is likely to make some changes to the duty structure, too, in its first budget, now in the making, with the aim of protecting local industries and saving the economy from any scratch of the global recession.

Refusing to say anything about the fixed price, the NBR official said that they are just preparing the proposal as the Finance Minister asked them to do so. “But the new proposal will not deprive the local industries.”

The summary will be sent to Finance Minister AMA Muhith for the final approval and later an SRO will be issued.

Pakistan - Iron, steel imports at lower duty criticised

KARACHI: FPCCI Vice President Zakaria Usman has expressed serious concern over import of iron and steel sheets ie flat-rolled products of iron and steel under HS code 7208, 7209 and 7210.

He mentioned that the country is a net importer of steel products as out of its total consumption of six million tons, Pakistan Steel Mills produces only one million tons if it works at 100 per cent capacity.

He asserted that specially in the case of flat rolled products, which include hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanised and pre-painted steel sheets, there are different categories of import duty depending on the quality of raw material, ranging from zero per cent scrap which is grossly misused and silicon sheets and coble plates at 5pc which is also greatly misdeclared, prime material at 10pc and secondary material at 20pc.

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