The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has expressed its concern over excessive import of luxury cars and export of normal rice in violation of a government ban.
A section of importers has brought in large number of cars before the announcement of national budget fearing imposition of higher tariff and duty, a senior revenue official said.
The increased import of cars will definitely affect the country's balance of payment adversely as a big amount of foreign exchange will be spent on the luxury item, he added.
NBR chairman Muhammad Abdul Mazid, Director General (DG) of central intelligence cell (CIC), Chairman of Bangladesh Road and Transport Authority (BRTA) in a surprise visit to the Chittagong port have found irregularities in import activities.
Talking to the FE, NBR chairman Muhammad Abdul Mazid said: "The government is yet to finalise its budget proposals. It is observing the situation before taking measures against such import activities."
Sources said the government is planning to revise some fiscal measures in the new budget to thwart such practice of some importers taking advantage of budget proposals.
The finance adviser Thursday held meeting with the revenue officials to finalise the fiscal measures scrutinising budget proposals. The government has received around 550 proposals after budget announcement.
A competent source said against the backdrop of excessive import of cars the government might increase dealers' commission of reconditioned vehicle imports to keep the car prices unaffected.
"We have found that some importers have brought in a large number of cars before the budget announcement. The cars are now at the Chittagong port," the NBR chief said.
Although the government has banned export of normal category of rice some exporters have been exporting the variety in the name of aromatic rice, he added.
The high-powered team also inspected import procedures of scrap iron, its value and weight.
Import of reconditioned vehicle jumped by 20 per cent at the fag end of the current fiscal as the importers wanted to take low duty benefit and avoid new fiscal measures, they said.
Talking to the FE, Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicle importers Association (BARVIDA) secretary general Ahmed Sharif said: "A number of consignment of cars missed shipment resulting in arrival of two or three consignments of cars at a time in April."
He said there is no excessive import of reconditioned vehicles before the announcement of budget. Some imported new cars have been put in the list of reconditioned vehicles creating such misunderstanding.
The CIC has also found that new cars are being brought into the country in name of reconditioned cars as the duty on import of new cars is much higher than that of reconditioned ones.
The NBR chairman said: "We have scrutinised the definition of reconditioned cars and checked chassis and engines of those imported cars."
He, however, declined to elaborate on initial findings of the team about this matter.
