The National Board of Revenue has empowered the trade bodies of plastic goods makers and garment accessories producers to issue utilisation declaration (UD) certificates required for use of raw materials imported under duty-free facility to produce export goods. The revenue board has recently transferred the power to Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Garment Accessories and Packaging Manufacturers and Exporters Association through amending the Export-Oriented Industries (Temporary Import) Rules-1993. BPGMEA and BGAPMEA now will be able to issue UD certificates to their member factories and the process will reduce the procedural delays and hassles in export, NBR officials and industry insiders said. The associations, however, will have to develop utilisation declaration application system software for issuing the certificates, they said. UP or UD certificate is required for use of raw materials imported duty-free under bonded warehouse licence to produce export goods. Currently, Customs Bond Commissionerate (CBC) of the revenue board issues the utilisation permission (UP) in favour of the deemed exporters like BPGMEA and BGAPMEA for the same purpose. The factories under the associations supply accessories such as hanger, button, zipper, polythene, carton, back board, hang tag, price tax, bar code, collar insert, label, sticker etc to export oriented industries mainly readymade garment factories. They import the raw materials duty-free under bonded warehouse licence issued by the CBC of the NBR. The CBC also fixes the annual entitlement of raw materials against the bond licence holders. The two associations have been demanding for long to transfer the authority to issue UD in favour of their members in a bid to reduce time, unnecessary cost and procedures in getting UP from the CBC. Bond licence holding factories will not need to visit the CBC for getting UP once their associations start issuing the UD certificates. BGAPMEA former president Rafez Alam Chowdhury, however, said that their members who mainly produce the biggest portion of accessories for export oriented industries including RMG would not be able to enjoy the facility fully as the NBR made the facility complicated. BGAPMEA will be able to issue UD for only carton goods and paper board while members who produce plastic goods will not be able to enjoy the benefit if they don’t have membership of BPGMEA. On the other hand, those who produce other types of accessories will need to go to CBC for UP certificates, he said. The associations will also have to fulfill some other requirements to enjoy the benefit, he added. According to the NBR order, the associations will have to develop the software and take approval from a committee consisting of representatives of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh Computer Council and the NBR for issuing UD certificates.
