Muhith wants to legalise gold import

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday said he wanted to legalise gold import for the jewellery industry as most of it is currently being smuggled into Bangladesh. “How can we relieve ourselves from this smuggling situation? I think the best way would be to allow importing gold to combat gold smuggling to India,” the finance minister said in his situation paper on allowing legal import of gold. “I want to speak with all the stakeholders, including the leaders of Bangladesh Jewellers’ Samity (Bajus). We need to be open to allowing legal imports of gold by local businessmen. I will then prepare my recommendation.” In the minister’s situation paper, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) gave three recommendations including letting VAT registered jewellery businesses to import gold legally. The NBR will also relax prior approval for gold importers. They will also withdraw specific duties on imported gold as the new VAT law will be implemented from July 1. Under the new VAT law, local importers will pay a total tax of Tk8,012 to import Tk35,000 worth of gold which currently stands at Tk7,161. Bajus made a proposal to the government to allow them to import gold. Muhith earlier had instructed the Internal Resources Division to find a solution to the upward trend of gold smuggling from India.