Speedy delivery of exporters' cash incentive
Saturday, 27 September 2008
CASH incentive for the exporters has been one of the various measures taken by successive governments to promote export trade of the country. With the passage of time and consequent growth of the sector, the overall quantity of export has increased and so has bulged the amount of cash incentive to be paid to the successful exporters. Though this cash incentive is an important stimulus for the exporters of the country, the actual delivery of the amount, in practice, is being made in a delayed fashion through the central bank. The reason is that, with the growth in the number of exporters, the risk of misuse of the cash incentive has also increased. To avoid the risk, the government has increased its scrutiny so that the cash award may reach the genuine exporters, who are contributing greatly to the foreign exchange reserve of the country. But as noted in the foregoing, the cautionary measure has also been causing a delay of about one year and a half in the delivery of the cash incentive to the recipients thereby depriving the latter of the benefit of timely utilisation of the money.
The exporters have long been pressing the government to relax the system and expedite the process of disbursing the cash incentives to the awardees for the overall benefit of the export sector of the economy. The issue was also taken seriously by Better Business Forum (BBF), which is represented by the business community as well as the government with the chief adviser himself in the chair. In order to remove the bottleneck and ensure speedy delivery of the cash incentive to the exporters, the BBF recently recommended creation of a 'revolving fund' for the purpose. However, the finance ministry has finally voiced its disagreement with the proposal with the argument that the 'the revolving fund' would be a time-consuming procedure involving many steps. What is worse, it would, the ministry concerned added, go against the fiscal discipline thereby complicating the budgetary procedure itself.
Ironically though, by the very nature of its composition, the BBF, which had made the suggestion for the 'revolving fund,' was no stranger to finance ministry or the government for that matter. Nevertheless, whatever the reason for this fresh stance on the part of the government about the 'fund,' it has not, however, made the issue of speedy disposal of the cash incentive to the exporters any lighter. On the contrary, this new stance of the government may also put a damper on the entrepreneurs in the export sector leaving a negative impact on their export performance.
So, to avoid any negative knock-on effect, the government itself, in consultation with the business community through the BBF, may again find out a foolproof way for speedy disposal of the cash incentive to exporters. It cannot be denied that there is the need for a prudent approach to the issue of 'incentive package.' The size of the package has, meanwhile, grown into a sizeable sum of Tk 10 billion. So, the government's discretion on the issue is not unjustified. But caution cannot also justify delay. The approach of the parties involved in the issue at hand should be to put more effort in hitting upon better ideas to resolve the problem. If the 'revolving fund' is not a good answer for the problem, then they must immediately look for a new one that may help to mitigate the issue of delay in the speedy disbursement of incentives to the exporters. In truth, 'no' was never any good answer for a situation where interests merge, rather than part ways.
The exporters have long been pressing the government to relax the system and expedite the process of disbursing the cash incentives to the awardees for the overall benefit of the export sector of the economy. The issue was also taken seriously by Better Business Forum (BBF), which is represented by the business community as well as the government with the chief adviser himself in the chair. In order to remove the bottleneck and ensure speedy delivery of the cash incentive to the exporters, the BBF recently recommended creation of a 'revolving fund' for the purpose. However, the finance ministry has finally voiced its disagreement with the proposal with the argument that the 'the revolving fund' would be a time-consuming procedure involving many steps. What is worse, it would, the ministry concerned added, go against the fiscal discipline thereby complicating the budgetary procedure itself.
Ironically though, by the very nature of its composition, the BBF, which had made the suggestion for the 'revolving fund,' was no stranger to finance ministry or the government for that matter. Nevertheless, whatever the reason for this fresh stance on the part of the government about the 'fund,' it has not, however, made the issue of speedy disposal of the cash incentive to the exporters any lighter. On the contrary, this new stance of the government may also put a damper on the entrepreneurs in the export sector leaving a negative impact on their export performance.
So, to avoid any negative knock-on effect, the government itself, in consultation with the business community through the BBF, may again find out a foolproof way for speedy disposal of the cash incentive to exporters. It cannot be denied that there is the need for a prudent approach to the issue of 'incentive package.' The size of the package has, meanwhile, grown into a sizeable sum of Tk 10 billion. So, the government's discretion on the issue is not unjustified. But caution cannot also justify delay. The approach of the parties involved in the issue at hand should be to put more effort in hitting upon better ideas to resolve the problem. If the 'revolving fund' is not a good answer for the problem, then they must immediately look for a new one that may help to mitigate the issue of delay in the speedy disbursement of incentives to the exporters. In truth, 'no' was never any good answer for a situation where interests merge, rather than part ways.