National Board of Revenue recently issued a Statutory Regulatory Order on customs duty reduction for importers under the South Asian Free Trade Area rules to facilitate trade among the countries.
The SRO will be in force till the issuance of another SRO in this regard.
The importers would be benefited from the latest SRO with customs duty cut on 4,609 products imported from January 01 this year.
Usually, NBR issues SRO on customs duty cut every year, but under the latest SRO, importers having Safta Rules of Origin Certificate will enjoy a reduced-duty facility on imports till the Safta rules will be in effect, said sources in the board of revenue.
The validity of last SRO expired on December 31, 2016, which was issued on April 7, 2015.
The importers said those who were enjoying Safta facility were facing difficulties due to delay in issuance of the latest SRO.
Mentionable, traders of the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation get duty cut facility in trading within the bloc under the Safta agreement.
The agreement first came into effect from January 2006 while the member countries were supposed to bring down the customs duties up to at best 5% by 2016.
In 2015, Bangladesh reduced the customs duty ranging between 0.675% and 7.1875% for the year.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
