National Board of Revenue (NBR) has increased the tariff value of imported aluminum bar, rods and profiles by 59 per cent to protect local industries.
The import value of the products was increased to US$ 3.5 per kilogram from $2.2.
Customs wing of the board issued a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO), dated November 23, with the upward revision of the value.
Local manufacturing industries would enjoy 43.5 per cent protection on retail sales of the products as compared to that of the imported aluminum profiles.
Officials said the tariff value has been revised up following proposals by the local manufacturers of aluminum bar, rods and profiles.
After the national budget for fiscal year 2017-18, Bangladesh Thai Aluminum urged the finance minister to review the import value of the products for the sake of protecting the local aluminum profile industries.
According to the local manufacturer, the finished products are currently much cheaper than that of the locally produced aluminum profiles.
They also claimed that the domestic industries have sufficient production to meet the local demand.
The proposals for reviewing the tax structure included upward revision of the tariff value of aluminum bar, rods and profiles to $4.0 from $2.20 per kg, increasing the import duty of the finished products to 25 per cent from 15 per cent.
The company also proposed imposing Supplementary Duty (SD) at a rate of 30 per cent on aluminum finished profiles like building materials including glass sheet, tiles, marble and granite, ceramics. It has proposed to impose 40 per cent SD on aluminum door and windows.
Following the proposals, the customs has collected data on value declaration from different companies, including Altech Aluminum industries, Kai Aluminum and Steeltech industries.
It also collected declared and assessed value at import stage of aluminum ingot, profile, doors and windows from the Asycuda World.
Customs officials have found the local industries were enjoying 41.6 per cent protection on retail sales of aluminum doors and windows while 28.9 per cent on sales of aluminum profile.
Imported doors and windows are sold at Tk 524 per kg, including Value Added Tax (VAT), while locally manufactured ones are sold at Tk 370 per kg.
The selling price of imported aluminum profile is Tk 352 per kg while it is Tk 273 per kg the local ones.
Aluminum profile and doors/windows are the major raw materials of construction industry. It is important to keep market prices of the construction materials stable along with protecting the local industries.
According to the data of Asycuda, the import-stage declaration value of aluminum bar, rods and profiles is Tk 170-200 per kg while local industries under bonded warehouse facility or other tax benefit are importing those at a price ranging from Tk 200 to Tk 450 per kg.
The customs also scrutinised the prices of aluminum ingot/billet in the London Metal Exchange (LME).
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