e-UD for apparel exporters

Doulot Akter Mala | Published: February 25, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to introduce online utilisation declaration (e-UD) system in a bid to check forgery of documents and abuse of duty-free import facility by apparel exporters.
The new system is also designed to expedite the process of exports and imports through the customs ports.
Officials said the e-UD will be launched integrating the data of two major apparel exporters' association with that of the NBR. It will also ease the process of issuance of UD certificates.
The NBR recently took the decision at a meeting attended by the representatives from the apex chamber body Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), BGMEA, BKMEA, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce and Bangladesh Bank. NBR chairman, also secretary to the Internal Resource Division (IRD) Md Nojibur Rahman chaired the meeting. Â
The representatives of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) taking part in the discussion urged the NBR to issue UD certificates to its members.
With the UD, exporters can import duty-free raw materials for export purposes under the bonded warehouse facility.
Officials said a working committee will be formed with the representatives from the exporters, the NBR and the BB to frame a plan for implementation of the online system.
The meeting decided to link the servers of the BGMEA and the BKMEA with the Asycuda World server of the NBR.
Customs officials will verify the authenticity of UD certificates instantly just after uploading of those by the apparel associations in the customs Asycuda server.
Customs officials also can assess quantity of raw materials, approved by the NBR, for executing export orders. Â
Currently, verification of UD takes a long time as the customs officials have to examine the manually submitted UDs by entering server of the apparel associations.
The officials faced problems on verification of authenticity of the amended UD certificates. They said many of the UDs go through several amendments but those are not available with the servers of the associations.
Introduction of the e-UD will help remove worries about the abuse of the duty-free facility through sale of raw materials in the local market instead of using those for export.
doulot_akter@yahoo.com