Hailing the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2017-18, the country’s garment accessories and packaging makers Saturday said that good governance would be necessary to implement the budget, which was big in size. In a statement, they appreciated the corporate tax cut for the readymade garments companies from 20 per cent to 15 per cent, but expressed dissatisfaction over keeping the tax at existing 35 per cent rate in cases of the backward linkage industry of the RMG sector. Acting president of Bangladesh Garment Accessories and Packaging Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGAPMEA) Md Moazzem Hossain Moti issued the statement, terming it ‘discriminatory’ and demanded the tax rate as proposed for the RMG sector. He also requested the government to keep the existing rate of 0.7 per cent as source tax instead of the proposed 1.0 per cent. Terming the sector a ‘rising industry’, he said that there was no incentive proposed for the industry and demanded incentive as given to other sectors. The association pointed out that the fire proof paint for pre-fabricated building with HS Code: 3208.90.20 is one of the most important among all other fire preventive equipments to make the factories safe, risk free, compliant and environment-friendly. But there was no duty-free import facility of the item in the proposed budget, Mr Moti said, demanding duty-free import of the fire proof paint to help set up environment-friendly industry.
