Govt to open up duty-free shops to private sector at ports
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Monira Munni
The government is planning to allow private sector investors to set up duty-free shops in Chittagong air and seaports and Sylhet airports to attract both local and foreign investment.
The National Board of Revenue has discussed the issue in a recent meeting.
In 1985, the government had scrapped the provision to allow private sector investment in the ports of Chittagong and Sylhet.
In order to boost private sector investment and contribution of the service sector to the economy, the government is reconsidering the 25-year old decision, officials said.
Presently, the government allows private investment to set up duty-free shops only in the Zia International Airport (ZIA) in the capital.
At ZIA there are some duty-free shops selling both Bangladeshi export quality products such as leather bags, cases, shoes as well as stores selling run of the mill duty-free stuff like cigarettes and perfumes.
The shops in the airport do not reflect the current trends in the metropolis and cannot effectively market Bangladesh abroad although many tourists stop over at the airport on route to other destinations.
The airports have gone through some renovations lately to make those functional, clean and comfortable for travellers and some new items have been included in the duty-free shops.
One area where there is a lot of scope for improvement is to make available items that foreigners would definitely want to take back
home from the duty-free shop at the airport that represent Bangladesh, the officials added.
Duty free sales are a source of profit for airports, airlines and ferry companies and are an indirect tax relief which do not apply to other forms of transports, they said.
Some countries, particularly Australia, New Zealand, India, Norway, Iceland, Kenya and the Philippines, have inwards duty free facilities, where arriving passengers can purchase duty-free items immediately before going through customs check.
The government is planning to allow private sector investors to set up duty-free shops in Chittagong air and seaports and Sylhet airports to attract both local and foreign investment.
The National Board of Revenue has discussed the issue in a recent meeting.
In 1985, the government had scrapped the provision to allow private sector investment in the ports of Chittagong and Sylhet.
In order to boost private sector investment and contribution of the service sector to the economy, the government is reconsidering the 25-year old decision, officials said.
Presently, the government allows private investment to set up duty-free shops only in the Zia International Airport (ZIA) in the capital.
At ZIA there are some duty-free shops selling both Bangladeshi export quality products such as leather bags, cases, shoes as well as stores selling run of the mill duty-free stuff like cigarettes and perfumes.
The shops in the airport do not reflect the current trends in the metropolis and cannot effectively market Bangladesh abroad although many tourists stop over at the airport on route to other destinations.
The airports have gone through some renovations lately to make those functional, clean and comfortable for travellers and some new items have been included in the duty-free shops.
One area where there is a lot of scope for improvement is to make available items that foreigners would definitely want to take back
home from the duty-free shop at the airport that represent Bangladesh, the officials added.
Duty free sales are a source of profit for airports, airlines and ferry companies and are an indirect tax relief which do not apply to other forms of transports, they said.
Some countries, particularly Australia, New Zealand, India, Norway, Iceland, Kenya and the Philippines, have inwards duty free facilities, where arriving passengers can purchase duty-free items immediately before going through customs check.