Leaders of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) urged the interim government to withdraw discretionary powers of the tax authorities, cut import duties on raw materials and intermediary products, continuation of tax holiday, and withdrawal of tax concession to whitening of black money. They also asked the government to take immediate measures for creating additional power generation capacity to meet the countrys growing energy needs.

They said the growth in manufacturing sector might slow down during the remaining part of the current fiscal, and if that happens then it will be unfortunate because in the recent years manufacturing and service sectors provided the growth opportunities.

MCCI delegation headed by the President Latifur Rahmanu placed a 13point proposal to the Chief Adviser (CA) to the Caretaker Government (CG) when they called on him on February 7. The proposal termed the power crisis a threat to economic growth as the country now faces a shortfall of some 1500MW of power, adding that frequent power outages, loadshedding and low voltage of supply have reached alarming levels. The business leaders also said ad hoc prescriptions such as socalled load management and closing of shops, as well as a few bargemounted or skidmounted plants will not solve the problem. It is necessary to adopt a clear short and mediumterm plan to build new capacity, so that the current demand as well as the future requirements of power can be adequately met, said the MCCI proposal.

About tax holiday, the business leaders said a Jetro (Japan External Trade Organisation) report shows that there are longer tax holiday facilities in several countries, in Iran it is 15 years, in UAE 40 years and in Egypt for an unlimited period. We want the chief advisers intervention in the issue,the MCCI delegation urged the CG.

Regarding whitening of black money, they said the chamber opposed the scheme from the beginning as it is not only an injustice to ethical tax payers but also poses serious threat to the country as black money is directly linked to several criminal activities like graft, smuggling of drugs, arms and ammunition, and money laundering.

The chamber leaders said in the proposal that the current gas crisis might not ease in the next three months as the countrys secondlargest gas field Bibiyana is not likely to go into production before April. Although after the commissioning of the Bibiyana field, the countrys total output of natural gas will rise to 1,700mmcfd (million cubic feet per day) from the present output of 1,500mmcfd, the marginal surplus will be shortlived as the demand is growing by nearly 10 percent, they added.

The delegation also urged the chief adviser to take some drastic actions for improving the Chittagong Port. The proposed actions include privatisation of the services in the existing container terminal, particularly operation of the gantry cranes which are being installed, and putting all facilities including handling of cranes of the New Mooring container terminal, when ready, in the private sector.

The MCCI leaders also said the restrictions proposed by the Bangladesh Bank in its draft guideline for debt equity should not be brought into force. Under the guideline, companies seeking more than Tk 25 crore loan have to raise 25 percent of the required fund from the stock market and 25 percent from sponsor shareholders. The remaining 50 percent of the fund can be borrowed from banks.