The caretaker government announced on May 14 a three-year import policy, which has been designed to protect domestic industries and make exports competitive. The policy has restricted import of all but the ones under 25 categories. The import items restricted under the new policy include pork, any print or electronic publication and good that may hurt people’s religious sentiment, any obscene or horror publication including one made on compact disk, tape and film, waste and radioactive materials, certain reconditioned equipment, substandard or stock-lot commodities, all kinds of egg, and any map which does not delineate Bangladesh’s geographical territory properly.

The number of ‘restricted’ items was around 752 in 1985-86. The government has been lifting the restriction and the number was around 130 in the last import policy. Announcing the 2006-09 import policy at a press conference in his office Finance and Commerce Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam expressed the hope that it would help industrialisation, create employment and reduce poverty. The policy comes into effect from May 14.

Aziz said the concept of imposing high import tariff to protect domestic industry is no more effective in the present day world. “It only makes local industry inefficient,” he said stressing the need for improving efficiency of the domestic industry. He said import duty on finished products remained in the highest slab of the duty structure. He said the government is closely monitoring the market and will take steps whenever necessary to face the situation. Any necessary changes will be incorporated into the policy by issuing statutory regulatory orders, Mirza Aziz added.

The government claims the new import policy offers opportunities to the export-oriented industries to become more competitive by providing easy import facilities. ‘How the private sector will now react to the policy and cash in on the opportunities is up to them,’ said Mirza Aziz. The policy has vested the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association, instead of the National Board of Revenue, with the authority to issue utilisation declaration certificates against back-to-back letters of credit for imports of raw materials by readymade garment units. RMG units will also be allowed to import as samples 0.3 per cent of their exported products instead of 0.2 per cent as under the previous policy order.

The import policy also has a provision that allows recognised industrial units to import capital machinery and accessories worth up to $35,000 in stead of the previous $25,000 without opening any LC. Under the policy, the registration fees of trade and industrial bodies and indenting firms have been raised to increase the government’s non-tax revenue income, the adviser said. The policy also has imposed a four-year age ceiling on import of second hand or reconditioned motor vehicles and made it mandatory to import them from their country of origin only. Other new provisions in the policy include restriction on import of poultry birds afflicted with avian influenza, formalin-treated fish, and sodium cyclamate. In case of importing meat from the European countries, the policy makes it mandatory to have the certification that the meat is free of mad cow disease.

At the briefing, the adviser also claimed that the policy would facilitate rapid import of essential commodities and thus keep the price level stable by increasing their inflow to the domestic market. He, however, conceded that the domestic prices of many items these days were determined by the price level in the international market. He said the commerce ministry had been keeping a constant watch on the global market situation.