Duty waiver on poultry feed ingredients not enough
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
THE National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to exempt the import of poultry feed ingredients from customs duty and mandatory pre-shipment inspection (PSI). The latest NBR action, as the developments suggest, is aimed at providing some relief to the bird-flu battered poultry industry. The government for the first time from this fiscal imposed 10 per cent duty on the imported poultry feed ingredients and made the PSI mandatory for the same. The emerging poultry sector that has suffered an estimated loss at about Tk. 41 billion due to the recent bird-flu outbreak has been enjoying duty-free import of the feed ingredients for more than a decade and it was never subjected to PSI.
Compared to the loss sustained by the poultry farms -- both commercial and backyard ones -- across the country, the help now being extended through the duty waiver is too inadequate to make any big impact. The government, reportedly, disbursed nearly Tk 47 million as compensation among the farms against the culling of 1.17 million chickens and destruction of 1.4 million eggs. The authorities are supposed to make available to the affected farms more Tk 20 million. The disbursement of compensation money, as claimed by the directorate of livestock, has been hassle-free. The leaders of the association of poultry farms who have grumbled about the size of compensation, are yet to come out with any allegation of malpractice in the disbursement of compensation funds. However, in most cases, the commercial poultry farms were the lucky ones to get the compensation offered by the government. The small backyard farms being the main source of earning for thousands of families in the affected districts have been bypassed. The authorities do need to find out the owners of these farms and extend financial support to them.
It is a welcome development that the incidences of bird flue outbreak have come down remarkably in recent weeks and the people have started consuming chickens and eggs again. But the financial damage caused to poultry farms, big and small, has been huge. Some farm owners might find it really hard to start operation anew and others are likely to take too long a time to pick up the steam. The best way to help out the sector, which is an officially declared thrust sector, would be the disbursement of loans at a lower rate of interest. The disbursement of credits at such concessional lending rates by the banks to the commercial poultry farms and arrangements, for making funds available to the backyard farm owners by the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are involved in microfinance operations at the grassroots under similar arrangements, will be considered pro-active supportive measures for this sector under the given circumstances. The Bangladesh Bank government at a recent meeting attended by the top bankers requested the banks to make loans available to the bird-flu affected poultry farms on a priority basis. But the central bank does need to monitor in this connection the follow-up measures by all concerned on this count. Such monitoring has become all the more necessary because of the fact that a large number of banks are yet not actively involved on a wider scale in loan-giving operations as far as the country's farming community is concerned. Still, the public sector banks, including the Bangladesh Krishi Bank and the Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank, remain to be the key players in agricultural loan operations. With farming, may it be production of cereals or rearing of cows, goats and chickens, becoming economically highly rewarding, all banks, private and public, do need to look at the potentials of the sector more seriously and should not be shy of supporting investments with funds, for such production-oriented, income-generating and employment-creating economic activities.
Compared to the loss sustained by the poultry farms -- both commercial and backyard ones -- across the country, the help now being extended through the duty waiver is too inadequate to make any big impact. The government, reportedly, disbursed nearly Tk 47 million as compensation among the farms against the culling of 1.17 million chickens and destruction of 1.4 million eggs. The authorities are supposed to make available to the affected farms more Tk 20 million. The disbursement of compensation money, as claimed by the directorate of livestock, has been hassle-free. The leaders of the association of poultry farms who have grumbled about the size of compensation, are yet to come out with any allegation of malpractice in the disbursement of compensation funds. However, in most cases, the commercial poultry farms were the lucky ones to get the compensation offered by the government. The small backyard farms being the main source of earning for thousands of families in the affected districts have been bypassed. The authorities do need to find out the owners of these farms and extend financial support to them.
It is a welcome development that the incidences of bird flue outbreak have come down remarkably in recent weeks and the people have started consuming chickens and eggs again. But the financial damage caused to poultry farms, big and small, has been huge. Some farm owners might find it really hard to start operation anew and others are likely to take too long a time to pick up the steam. The best way to help out the sector, which is an officially declared thrust sector, would be the disbursement of loans at a lower rate of interest. The disbursement of credits at such concessional lending rates by the banks to the commercial poultry farms and arrangements, for making funds available to the backyard farm owners by the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are involved in microfinance operations at the grassroots under similar arrangements, will be considered pro-active supportive measures for this sector under the given circumstances. The Bangladesh Bank government at a recent meeting attended by the top bankers requested the banks to make loans available to the bird-flu affected poultry farms on a priority basis. But the central bank does need to monitor in this connection the follow-up measures by all concerned on this count. Such monitoring has become all the more necessary because of the fact that a large number of banks are yet not actively involved on a wider scale in loan-giving operations as far as the country's farming community is concerned. Still, the public sector banks, including the Bangladesh Krishi Bank and the Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank, remain to be the key players in agricultural loan operations. With farming, may it be production of cereals or rearing of cows, goats and chickens, becoming economically highly rewarding, all banks, private and public, do need to look at the potentials of the sector more seriously and should not be shy of supporting investments with funds, for such production-oriented, income-generating and employment-creating economic activities.