The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is considering to impose restriction on import of chemicals by the Old Dhaka-based inventories to avert recurrence of deadly fire incidents in the area, its Chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan has said.
The revenue board chief said it while responding to the reporters at a programme at NBR conference room in the capital on Tuesday.
NBR arranged the programme to award the top-10 value added tax (VAT)-payer companies in the just concluded Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF).
Expressing deep shock over the deadly Chawkbazar fire incident that killed at least 69 people, Mr Bhuiyan said presence of a large number of chemical godowns causes recurrence of devastating fire incidents in the densely-populated Old Dhaka.
He said they can take steps to stop import of chemicals for the Old Dhaka-based companies, if the government wants it, and the revenue board has discussed the issue with the government.
"If the banks refuse to open letters of credit (L/Cs) for these firms and NBR does not allow import of chemicals, the warehouses in Old Dhaka will be forced to relocate somewhere else."
Hailing the top VAT-payer companies, Mr Bhuiyan said VAT constitutes around 35 per cent of the overall revenue collection, and this official recognition will further encourage the firms to pay such tax.
"To fulfil the revenue collection target for this fiscal year (FY), 2018-19, will be challenging," he added.
The awarded top-10 VAT-payers in the DITF were Hatil Complex Ltd, Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd, Esquire Electronics Ltd, Rangs Electronics Ltd, Butterfly Marketing Ltd, RFL Electronics Ltd, Fair Electronics Ltd, Durable Plastic Ltd, Navana Furniture Ltd and Rangpur Metal Industries Ltd.
Certificates, hailing contribution of the VAT-payers, and crests were handed over to the representatives of the awardees.
NBR sources said a total of 569 local and overseas companies participated in the DITF 2019. The amount of revenue, collected from the month-long fair, stood at Tk 70.1 million, up by Tk 18 million from the previous year's Tk 52.1 million.
Vice-chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Bijoy Bhattacharjee, President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, and NBR Member (VAT Implementation and IT) Shahnaj Parveen, among others, were present at the event.
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