10 referral hospitals under NBR scanner

Customs intelligence has instructed ten private hospitals in the city to produce necessary documents on duty-free import of medical equipment in a bid to verify their compliance.
The hospitals, listed as referral ones, are entitled to the duty-free facility on import of medical equipment under certain conditions.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) provided the tax-free facility to 24 referral hospitals in the country.
The customs intelligence recently sent a format to ten hospitals requiring each of them to furnish information in it. The information is like the date of import, bills of entry number, indemnity bond number, applicable customs duties, certified copy of the NBR and withdrawal of indemnity bond.
The ten hospitals that have come under the customs scanner are Apollo Hospitals, United Hospital, Jalalabad Rajib-Rabeya Medical College Hospital, Salauddin Specialised Hospital, Ad-din Hospital, Sumona Hospital, Monsur Ali Medical College Hospital, Dr Sirajul Islam Medical College and Hospital, MH Shamorita Hospital and Ali Hospital Ltd.
Following an instruction of NBR chairman Nojibur Rahman in January last the customs intelligence and investigation wing has made the move. The wing has formed a three-member committee to investigate the issue.
The committee, comprising deputy director Mustafizur Rahman, Assistant Director Md Kamruzzaman and Assistant Director Md Omar Faruk, will prepare a report on the hospitals' compliance with the conditions tagged by the revenue board.
According to a senior customs official, the duty-free facility has been provided by issuing a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) in 2005. It consists of inadequate provisions.
There is a single provision under which the committee is required to investigate, he has said.
"Under the order, a referral hospital has to install the imported machinery within three months of import. A committee, comprising customs and drug administration officials, would give a report within six months to the effect that the duty-free machinery are being used properly," he has said.
The customs authority can scrap the duty-free facility and collect all due taxes, if the committee finds any irregularities, he has added.
The hospitals import the machinery by furnishing an indemnity bond. The bond is released later on along with certificates by the inspection committee after the installation of machinery.  
There is no condition in the SRO to compel the hospitals to provide medical services free of cost to the poor or low income people, the officials say.
The customs officials felt the necessity of amending the SRO and incorporating few provisions into it so that poor and low-income group of people can benefit from the duty-benefit enjoyed by referral hospitals.
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