The cabinet approved in principle a new customs act aimed at making the relevant law more business-friendly and also boosting government revenue receipts in simpler ways.
In its weekly meeting Monday, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presiding, the council of ministers gave the approval for 'The Customs Act 2014'.
Also, the cabinet endorsed an anti-child marriage law as well as a proposal imposing one-per cent surcharge on mobile SIM uses.
"The draft law, prepared by the National Board of Revenue (NBR), follows international best practices," Cabinet Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the media about the customs act.
The proposed law will be in Bangla to make it understandable to all.
He said the proposed law is aimed at making the revenue management related to customs more transparent, modern, time-befitting, business-and investment-friendly, and more revenue-generating.
It incorporates risk management as well as reflects the provisions of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The cabinet secretary said the draft act will now go to the ministry of law, justice and parliamentary affairs for vetting. And after the vetting, it will come back to the cabinet for final approval.
He said the country is now following the existing Customs Act 1969 which has been amended many times over the years.
"The proposed new law is 'simplified and business-friendly that will help increase government revenue and increase investment," Mr Bhuiyan said.
The proposed law also has a provision of consulting the stakeholders concerned on occasion.
It will facilitate advanced cargo declaration, more simplification and development of the export and import declarations and various systems of customs valuation.
The proposed law has been framed in line with the international conventions that government has signed on so far.
The act will come into effect in July 2016 because the customs officials and the stakeholders need time to be acquainted with the law and its execution.
Besides, new infrastructure will also be needed to implement the proposed law.
"It will take two years to complete the entire process for implementing the law," he said about the time lag.
He said the customs wing has incorporated a number of provisions into the proposed law that make discussions with the businesses and private sector mandatory prior to the implementation of policy decisions.
The new act would have risk-based system of customs management to expedite clearance of goods.
It would also cut discretionary powers of the customs officials and introduce a 'paperless' customs administration.
As per conditions of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the proposed new law has to be placed in parliament by September 30, 2014.
The Manila-based lender, ADB, provides budgetary support to help meet the fiscal deficit of the country.
The NBR incorporated rules of international conventions and trade treaties in the new act. Those include the Revised Kyoto Convention, SAFE framework of standard, and trade-facilitation agreement of the WTO.
To implement the new act, interconnectivity with the relevant offices and an automated system would be required to reduce hassle of the businesses on clearances of goods from ports.
The provisionally approved 'The Child Marriage Prevention Act 2014' provides for extending the punishment of both imprisonment and fines for three types of offences.
It has provision of up to two years' imprisonment and Tk 50,000 fines for the offenders.
Grooms, marriage registrars and parents all will be subject to this two-pronged punishment in case of a child marriage.
The measures are aimed at controlling the menace (child marriage) in the country.
This piece of legislation also has been drafted in Bangla to make the existing law of 1929 more time-befitting one. "A female offender will only face fines, not imprisonment," the cabinet secretary said.
The law in the making sets man's minimum age for marriage at 21 and woman's at 18, said the cabinet secretary.
"The cabinet directed the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to review the age-bar provision for lowering it considering the tropical environment of the country and the reality," Mr Bhuiyan said.
As per the Child Act, people aged up to 18 years are considered children.
He said the age of boys and girls under the law would be determined through birth certificates, national identity cards, passports and secondary school certificate (SSC) examination certificates.
Executive magistrates will be responsible to conduct trial under the law. The matter of terminating child marriages would be under the jurisdiction of the Family Court.
"There will be a Child Marriage Prevention Committee. It will be formed at various tiers involving government officials, non-government organisation (NGO) officials, public representatives and civil-society members," the cabinet secretary said.
The cabinet also approved a proposal imposing one-per cent development surcharge on total amount of money earned from services of using Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) or Removable User Identity Module (R-UIM) card of mobile operators.
On an average, a mobile SIM user spends Tk 200 per month. So he/she has to pay only Tk 2 annually to the exchequer.
"It will help the government to earn additional Tk 1.4 billion in revenue annually. The money will be spent for education and health sector," Mr Bhuiyan said.
Asked when it will come into effect, the cabinet secretary said, "It will be implemented at the time of issuing circular."
Asked whether the cabinet discussed matters of the five government high officials who took fake freedom-fighter certificate, he said it didn't.
"The ministry of liberation war affairs and the ministry of public administration will look into the matter."
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