Considering the health safety of the consumers, businesses should have a positive attitude towards maintaining compliance while importing animal feed and other ingredients, urged National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem.
He said, "In many cases, it is quite difficult to differentiate feed (for animal consumption) and cereal (human consumption)..."
"The price of animal feed, especially for cattle, poultry and fish, is higher than that of the cereals imported for human consumption ... for that reason, there are tougher compliance standards for animal feed," he said.
The NBR chief made the comments while responding to the animal feed importers' concern over maintenance of strict rules in importing cattle, poultry and fish feed.
He was addressing a pre-budget meeting with feed importers, poultry industry leaders and agro machinery manufacturers at the NBR headquarters in the city's Segunbagicha.
Referring to retrieval of a leading international fast food chain from Bangladesh, he said, "A global food chain wanted to do business but at feasibility stage, they found that beef production here wasn't done in hygienic way which was contradictory to their compliance standard."
Any industry can develop further if the compliance issues are maintained properly, Mr Muneem said, adding: "Our businesses should stay positive about the compliance issues."
Placing proposals for the upcoming national budget for FY 2022-2023, the Feed Industries Association of Bangladesh urged the government to lower the corporate tax on poultry, fish and cattle feed manufacturing companies to 5.0 per cent from existing 15 per cent.
It also proposed lifting advance income tax (AIT) on import of raw materials for animal feed like maize, soybean extract, fish oil, feed grade limestone, DCP, coconut extraction, enzyme, feed grade molasses, etc.
Besides, the association of feed industries urged NBR to remove the VAT deducted at source (VDS) while buying primary ingredients to make animal feed from farmers, importers or distributors.
Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association proposed removal of duty and VAT on poultry farm equipment.
It also urged the NBR to issue an SRO to allow easy import of biogas plant components - biogas generator, pump, stove, lamp, de-waterer, de-sulfuriser, etc - to encourage poultry farms to set up biogas plants.
Breeders Association of Bangladesh President Rakibul Ahsan Tutul said due to the pandemic, many small poultry farms that were previously shut were trying to restart businesses in recent months; an exemption of income tax for the sector could help them recover from losses.
The Animal Health Companies Association of Bangladesh sought removal or cutting of respective customs duty (CD), VAT, AIT, AT, regulatory duty (RD), and supplementary duty (SD) on sugarcane molasses, disodium sulphate, potassium hydroxide, broken rice and beans, ground nut, etc.
Meanwhile, Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Association President Alimul Ehsan Chowdhury urged the revenue authority to lower tax on dividends earned by agro machinery manufacturers from 30 per cent to 15 per cent.
He also proposed removal of TDS on agro machinery manufacturers and products supplied by them.
Demanding protection for local companies, he urged the government to increase import duty on 27 types of agro machineries as these types of machines are not produced in Bangladesh.
ahb_mcj2009@yahoo.com