Textile millers have sought the prime minister’s intervention to save the country’s primary textile sector by preventing misuse of bonded warehouse facility and import of yarns and fabrics through missdeclaration by a section of businesses. The Bangladesh Textile Mills Association in separate letters to prime minister Sheikh Hasina and textiles and jute minister Golam Dastagir Gazi made the demand. The BTMA said that the local textile mills were in dire straits for last few years due to price hike of gas, import of fabrics through missdeclaration and misuse of bonded warehouse facility. In the letters, BTMA president Mohammad Ali Khokon, however, thanked the National Board of Revenue and law enforcement agencies as they started drives to stop misuse of bonded warehouse facility by businesses. The association thanked the prime minister for providing various policy supports to the textile sector and demanded constant drives against the people who are selling yarn and fabrics in the local market by misusing bonded warehouse facility. The trade body requested the textiles minister to issue a demi official letter to the finance minister so that the drives against misuse of bonded warehouse facility continue. According to the letter, the BTMA member mills invested more than $7 billion in the textile sector but a good number of mills might turn into sick units due to misuse of bonded warehouse facility and import of yarns and fabrics through missdeclaration by a section of businesses. The local market should be freed from smuggled yarns and fabrics for the survival of the country’s textile industry, otherwise the country’s economic growth would be hampered as the primary textile mills contribute significantly to the rise in the export of readymade garment products and meet the essential needs of common people, it said. Citing the NBR data, the BTMA said that customs bond commissionerate conducted a total of 223 drives in January-October this year and seized 85 trucks and covered vans laden with fabrics and yarns for misusing bonded warehouse facility. In the period, the NBR identified revenue evasion worth Tk 256 crore by misusing of bonded warehouse facility and cancelled 326 bond licences, BTMA officials said. Earlier, textile manufacturers told the media that they were losing business worth more than $6 billion annually in the domestic market due to smuggling of yarn and fabrics into the country and misuse of bonded warehouse facility, industry people said. They said that the size of the domestic market of fabrics was 7 to 8 billion metres worth $11-$12 billion. Of which, the local producers meet demand for only 3 to 4 billion metres of fabrics worth nearly $6 billion and the rest of the demand was met by smuggled fabrics and fabrics imported under the bonded warehouse facility.
