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Speakers at a workshop on Wednesday urged the government to rationalise the existing tariff structure and make it competitive for the post Least Developed Country (LDC) period.
Speakers came up with the request at a workshop on “Competitive tariff structure: post–LDC graduation context” organised by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), said a press release.
“After the LDC graduation, Bangladesh will have to pay 8 per cent to 16 per cent duty to the countries where we export. Moreover, we will not be able to impose any supplementary (SD) and regulatory duty (RD) to safeguard local industries which is going to be a challenge”, said President of Dhaka Chamber Rizwan Rahman in his speech.
At present Bangladesh’s average tariff structure is about 13.5 per cent which is higher than Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia, he said, adding that, “We need to prepare ourselves in terms of enhancing productivity, cost minimisation, industry skill development, ease of doing business and cost of doing business.”
Md Mashiul Alam, joint chief of Bangladesh Tariff Commission who presented the keynote paper, highlighted that Bangladesh is a resilient country.
“Last year our export was USD 50 billion. Even after LDC graduation, Bangladesh has the capacity to adopt the challenges. But from now we have to go for regional integration for PTA, FTA and CEPA with potential trading partners to hold the market access”, he suggested.
“It is true that our tariff line is not very competitive and higher than many other countries, therefore we have no alternative but rationalise it. In that case sectoral tariff policy for at least five years will be helpful for our exporters and importers”, he added.
Member of Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission Shis Haider Chowdhury said that including government and private sector should work jointly to make the tariff structure competitive.
He said Bangladesh is going to be graduated from LDC in 2026 which is a good news for the country but recently Bangladesh is going through a tough time due to Covid-led pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, worldwide economic recession and natural disaster.
“Previously we were reluctant about FTA but now government is doing few studies to go for PTA and FTA. Our tax to GDP ratio is only 7.9 per cent which is not expected.”, he said, suggesting that, after the graduation Bangladesh will have to go for tariff rationalisation at the same time country will have to concentrate on VAT and tax collection to balance revenue generation.
