BGMEA: It’s a very significant budget

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hassan has termed the proposed budget for the next fiscal year a very significant one as the country celebrates 50 years of independence and given the situation due to the global pandemic.

“We’ve received the digital copy of the proposed budget and are looking into it. But we need time to come up with an official observation,” he said in a video message.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday proposed to continue additional export incentive at the rate of 1% in the next financial year as well.

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The BGMEA president hoped that the budget focused on all issues related to the lives and livelihoods considering the current situation.

Faruque said the BGMEA board will evaluate the budget in detail on Saturday and will brief the media at 2pm on the same day.

As per the directives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the government started providing an additional 1% cash incentive along with other existing export incentives to the textiles and RMG industry, and as a result, the sector has been able to successfully cope with the effects of the pandemic.

As this has continued in the current fiscal year, the textile and garment industry has turned around and achieved the expected exports despite the challenges arising from the pandemic situation.