Some budgetary measures 'to hit ceramic industry'

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FE Report
Bangladesh Ceramic Ware Manufacturers' Association (BCWMA) Tuesday said some of the proposed budgetary measures will seriously affect the country's ceramic industry that earned $ 32.80 million through exports in fiscal 2005-06.
According to BCWMA, the ceramic industry showed a whopping 695 per cent export growth in the last one decade.
"The proposed budget for the fiscal 2007-08 raised the import duty on the raw materials of ceramic industry on one hand from five per cent to ten per cent and the import duty on imported ceramic products has, on the other hand, been reduced to 20 per cent from 25 per cent," a BCWMA letter sent to chairman of National Board of Revenue (NBR) said.
The letter said such budgetary measures will only raise the production cost of ceramic products and also help flood the local market with substandard imported products jeopardising the very existence of the industry.
The association demanded maintaining of 5.0 per cent import duty on all basic raw materials, reduction of the intermediary import duty to 10 per cent from existing 12 per cent and continuation of the existing 25 per cent supplementary duty on import of ceramic products.
The association also demanded withdrawal of five per cent supplementary duty proposed on tiles and sanitary products to reduce the production cost.
"We are already facing tough competition from China, but the proposed budgetary measures, if implemented, will make it very difficult to survive," one BCWMA leader said.
He said the local ceramic industries are currently forced to cut the prices of their products in the range between 15 per cent and 20 per cent to face competition from the lowly-priced Chinese products in the local market.