Sports goods to get even dearer

Sporting goods importers fear that the price of the goods will only go up in the coming days as the import duty for ‘non-essential goods’ is increased in the budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year.

Sports goods are considered non-essential items, and previous reports stated that the Bangladesh Bank had asked the banks to impose a margin of at least 25% on the opening of letters of credit for such goods.

The Bangladeshi taka has seen its price drop in the past few months and now one US Dollar is quoted at Tk 91.50.

Sports goods importers in fear that they would not be able to make a profit amid such deflation of taka, along with the added import tax.

Paplu Datta, managing director of SNP Sports, told The Business Post that they had been paying a higher import duty tax, and along with the inflation, the prices of sports goods have been on the rise.

“Previously, we had a 10% import duty tax on sports goods. Now, we have to pay 25%. Raising the duty by 15% is massive. This is making everything costlier. It’s increasing the price massively, which is creating a problem for the customers. We will lose customers in this way.

“Now, as the price of the US Dollar is increasing, it costs us, even more, to buy goods from foreign companies,” Paplu, whose company sells imported sports goods from renowned international company SG, said.

“I don’t think there is any chance of lowering tax or currency exchange rate. There will be a big effect on the sports industry in the country,” he said.

Tarek Aziz, the former Bangladesh pacer, runs ‘TK Sports’, a sports goods shop. He said that it did not affect them much as they imported very little.

“We do not import much. So, there is not much effect on us. But there are companies who are wholesale sellers and import more, and this has a bigger effect on them,” Tarek said.