The National Board of Revenue is going to relax the conditions for availing duty-free car imports by the investors in the planned special economic zones in the country to attract investment, particularly from abroad in the zones, NBR officials said. They said the revenue board last week sent a summery halving the total amount of investment and employment generation in an industrial unit required for availing the benefit to finance minister AMA Muhith. According to the NBR decision, investors in the SEZs will enjoy duty-free car import by investing only $5 million or equivalent local currency instead of the original $10 million or equivalent amount of money in an industrial unit. The condition related to job creation has also been proposed to cut by half to 250 from the original 500, the officials said. The customs wing of the revenue board will issue a statutory regulatory order amending the existing SRO in this connection after getting approval of the finance minister, they said. The revenue board, under the budgetary measures for the current fiscal year, provided duty-free car import facility with some conditions including minimum amount of investment and job creation for the investors in the planned economic zones. Under the benefit, investors of an industrial unit will be allowed to import a maximum 2000cc Sedan car along with a microbus or a pickup van or a double cabin pickup without paying customs duty, supplementary duty, regulatory duty and value-added tax. NBR officials said that now the customs wing decided to relax the conditions following a request from the Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority. The BEZA last month appealed to the revenue board to cut the threshold of minimum amount of investment and job creation to attract more investment in the zones. The other NBR conditions for availing the duty-free car import by the investors include a bar on transfer or sales of the imported cars before five years of import and use of the vehicles for other purposes except production and related purposes of the factory. The government has already approved the proposals for setting up 17 economic zones, including three private ones, to attract both local and foreign investments to boost the country’s economy. The government has also planned to establish 100 economic zones by 2030. Of the planned SEZs, two will be dedicated exclusively for Indian investors, one each for Chinese and Japanese investors.
