Home ›› 26 Feb 2023 ›› Front
The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) has urged the government to continue subsidies to the energy sector till the end of 2023 to overcome the ongoing crisis amid the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
MCCI President Saiful Islam made the call while exchanging views with journalists at its office in Dhaka on Saturday.
“The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) loan to Bangladesh is tied with several conditions, such as gradually cutting subsidies from a number of sectors, especially the energy industry,” he said.
“However, at present, businessmen are going through a crisis because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. Therefore, we request the government to continue subsidies to the energy sector at least throughout this year.”
He also urged the concerned authorities not to keep the prices of local natural gas equal to the imported ones.
Saiful also said the central bank maintained no embargo in opening LCs, but in reality, banks did not show a willingness to open LCs instantly.
The chief of the trade body also sought proper policy support from the government to further develop the business atmosphere to bring more investment into the country.
Saiful added that the IMF has approved a $4.7 billion loan for Bangladesh. Bangladesh has qualified for LDC graduation by 2026. So, the country has to cut subsidies to different sectors.
“Due to the increased gas and electricity prices, our cost of production has already increased. Export competition has also increased across the globe. If energy prices are hiked in the international market, it should be clear how the authorities will adjust the price, and by which method. Then, businesses can be somewhat relaxed,” he added.
While discussing the survey findings of the Bangladesh Business Climate Index (BBX) 2022-23, Saiful said that they started to make the index after closing the survey of the World Bank on ease of doing business.
“Bangladesh has shown improvements in the business environment by scoring 61.95 out of 100 in 2022, which was 61.01 in 2021. However, significant efforts are still required in this sector,” he also said.
He also said that BBX is based on 10 pillars – Starting a Business, Access to Land, Availability of Regulatory Information, Infrastructure, Labour Regulation, Dispute Resolution, Trade Facilitation, Paying Taxes, Technology Adoption, and Access to Finance. These pillars contain a total of 35 sub-indicators which have been used to calculate the index.
Saiful Islam also called for trade licenses to be issued for five years to boost the ease of doing business. He highlighted the need for good governance to continue the country’s development.
“Bangladesh’s imports declined 2.15 per cent year-on-year to $38.13 billion in the six months ending with December 2022 compared to a year ago,” he added.
Even before the IMF approved the loan, the government increased electricity prices by 10 per cent and gas by as much as 179 per cent.
Answering a question, MCCI Vice President Habibullah N Karim said they don’t promote loan default or protect defaulters. Even the organization is working on how Non-Performing Loan (NPL) can be reduced. We never demand relief from default loans.
“Bangladesh will attain an upper middle-income country by 2023 and development country’s status by 2041. So, we must diversify export sectors. We are working to increase multiple billion dollar exports to achieve the goals,” he also said.
He added that one of our gas resources will end. If we explored gas 10 years ago, now we can get new gas. Even if we explore gas now, we can meet 50/60 per cent of gas demand after 20 years. But we are lagging behind in exploring gas.
“The globe’s almost countries including the USA, China and India provide huge policy support to boost business. But we do not get proper policy support. However, Bangladesh’s investment environment has improved vastly in recent years so the media should publish the positive matter to bring more FDI,” he added.
