EU probing GSP forgeries
June 04, 2011 00:00:00
Badrul Ahsan
The European Union (EU) has started investigation into more than five hundred consignments of apparels that been exported to the EU countries from a third country showing Bangladesh as their origin in 2010, a high official of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) said.
The fraudulent practice was adopted to get zero-duty benefit under the generalised system of preference (GSP) facilities which is applicable in the case of apparels exported from Bangladesh.
The consignments of readymade garments (RMG) with fake declaration of GSP, exported to the European Union (EU) by a third country, China, according to a document of EU submitted to the government recently.
An independent high profile anti-fraud team from EU recently visited Dhaka to probe fraudulent activities on the part of many local exporters involving the GSP facilities.
The five-member team from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) visited the EPB to determine whether any dubious documents had been issued by the state-run export promotion agency. It also visited Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) and some factories and quizzed officials to find out their link with such GSP forgeries.
The team headed by Mr David Marfi also visited the national board of revenue (NBR) and customs offices and obtained the necessary electronic data in relation to the companies
which might have been involved in such illegal practices.
OLAF's responsibilities include protecting the EU's financial interests through investigations into fraud, corruption and any other irregularities besides misconduct within the EU institutions.
The EU under the GSP offers lower tariffs or duty-free access for imports from 178 developing countries and territories, including Bangladesh into its markets.
Sources in the EPB said that a section of dishonest entrepreneurs, including several local companies who import fabrics and accessories from abroad are involved with the forgeries. "They sometime use the fake certificates as they are not entitled to GSP facilities, some times they sell it to a third country for monetary gains", they added.
The OLAF team that arrived in Dhaka on May 09 tried to identify the reasons how a third country used the Bangladesh quota under the GSP facilities.
Amir Hossain, director general of Textile Cell, EPB, said, "We are not aware about the work strategy and other details of the visiting OLAF team because they were not interested to make their findings public."
"If any wrongdoing on the part of Bangladeshi entrepreneurs or the EPB staffs are found, the EU might bring it to our notice and then we would take necessary action," he said.
The OLAF team left Bangladesh on May 20 and would submit its report to the EU.
When asked, Zillul Hye Razi, EU trade adviser in Dhaka, also said that the team had worked independently.
Meanwhile, Germany has made a list of some traders who allegedly import textiles using fake GSP certificates. The German customs has kept a section of their importers on this list of suspects who have a track record of being involve in the GSP forgery.
Earlier, in 2009, the German customs imposed a 12 per cent deposit on suspicious imports due to fears over the widespread abuse of certificates that allow Bangladeshi products the duty-free access.
Later, it lifted the restriction after Bangladesh adopted some measures to check forgeries.
A probe body comprising officials from the Ministry of Commerce, EPB, Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority (BEPZA) and BGMEA detected irregularities of eight companies in 2009 and suspended their all types of activities relevant to export.
After the investigation in 2009, the EPB introduced a new type of GSP certificate security seal and stringent policies for distribution of the same.