NBR orders consignees to issue bank guarantee to importers

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Doulot Akter Mala
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) Thursday issued an order asking the consignees to provide bank guarantee to get imported plastic raw materials released from port, the letters of credit (LCs) of which were opened by October 31 under a bond facility.
The board has issued the order to facilitate release of over 500 containers of plastic raw materials stuck up at ports with accumulated demurrages amounting to about Tk 500 million.
Plastic raw materials are mainly used by export-oriented backward linkage industry, especially ready-made garments (RMG).
The importers will have to provide "an unconditional bank guarantee" equivalent to the amount of import duty to get the consignments cleared, according to the NBR order.
In the budget for fiscal 2007-08, the government made it mandatory to mark 'Imported under bond, not for sale' punched in red on the bags containing the plastic raw materials with effect from July 1.
The order was issued to check duty evasion as well as abuse of bonded facility.
Later, the board relaxed its rule suspending its order until October 31 after the import of plastic raw materials was halted by the concerned parties.
Plastic raw material importers have opened a number of import LCs under the relaxed rules.
Many of the consignments are still in the pipeline.
The importers started facing problems in releasing their consignments that arrived after October 31 as the customs authority referred to conditions of the earlier SRO.
"Importers, enjoying bonded facility, will be allowed to release products for which LCs were opened by October 31 of current fiscal against bank guarantee," the NBR order said.
The importers will get back the bank guarantee after production and export of finished products, it noted.
If the importers failed to export finished products within the stipulated period the board will encash the bank guarantee and take necessary action, the NBR order said.
Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BPGMEA) president Jasim Uddin said: "Production cost of local plastic industries will increase manifold because of the provision of bank guarantee."
The BPGMEA demanded complete withdrawal of the punching requirement on bags of imported raw materials.