Cabinet okays gold policy easing import
The cabinet on Wednesday approved the country’s first-ever gold policy (Gold Policy-2018) to ease import of the precious metal, curb smuggling and promote export of gold ornaments.
The approval came at a cabinet meeting held at the Prime Minister’s Office with prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
After the meeting, cabinet secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam at a press briefing at the secretariat said that the policy would streamline the gold business in the country as it would make commercial import of gold easier and prevent smuggling of the metal.
He said that Bangladesh Bank would appoint dealers who would import gold bars while traders would get incentives for export of gold ornaments.
The National Board of Revenue will also provide duty and bond facility to importers, he added.
Jewellers will also have to make a declaration with the value-added tax authorities about their stock within six months under the policy.
The commerce ministry framed the draft of the policy and placed it before the cabinet for approval.
Stakeholders including traders, jewellers and economists have been demanding a gold policy for long as the existing Bangladesh Bank guidelines on gold import remain ineffective due to stiff procedures and other complexities, which makes room for widespread smuggling of gold bar into the country.
Bangladesh has also become a transit point of gold smuggling that particularly targets the Indian market.
Gold has never been imported under the BB guidelines, but 80 per cent of the annual demand for 20-40 tonnes is met by smuggled gold and the rest from recycled gold, according to the draft of the policy.
The trend is not only depriving the government of a huge amount of revenue but also creating scopes for money laundering and proliferation of black money, it said.
Currently, a passenger can bring 100 grams of gold without duty and 234 grams with paying duty under the baggage rules of NBR.
Shafiul said that Bangladesh would be able to tap a significant portion of global market of gold ornaments as the policy would provide incentives to exporters.
India is the biggest player in the global gold ornaments market and it earned $ 42.9 billion in last year from the sector while Bangladesh’s export earnings were only $672 million, he said.
According to the draft of the policy, licensed gold jewellers would purchase imported gold from authorised dealers to be appointed by the central bank.
The draft also proposes provisions making mandatory for the jewellers and gold businesses to get licence, certificate and registration and introduce electronic cash register.
The jewellers and gold businesses would require preserving national identification details of sellers for buying recycled gold.
They would also require legalising gold under their current possession by paying tax.
The draft gold policy also recommended establishment of lab for ensuring quality of gold, introduction of hallmark and cash memos with detailed description of ornaments for protecting the interest of consumers.
The cabinet on Wednesday also approved the draft of the Customs Act-2018, which has been framed replacing the Customs Act-1969, to adopt international best practices and information technology in the proposed law and make it consistent with international rules.
The cabinet also approved the National Environment Policy-2018.
It also approved a proposal for amending the ‘Agreement between Bangladesh and India Concerning to Orbit Frequency Coordination of South Asia Satellite’.
Source: http://www.newagebd.net