Diamond World becomes 1st Bangladeshi company to import gold bars
Image collected
Diamond Environment has made history as the leading jewellery property has become the primary company from Bangladesh to import precious metal bars through a legal channel to appeal to both local and overseas markets.
The company earned 10.5 kilograms of gold on June 30, which can be an extraordinary case for Bangladesh as gold has never been imported through legal stations because the independence of the united states.
"We happen to be hopeful that we should be able to export jewellery within half a year," explained Dilip Kumar Agarwala, managing director of Gemstone World Ltd.
Formal import will benefit customers as prices of the important metal will come right down to the degrees of the overseas market. "Customers had been bound to fork out Tk 4,000 more than the intercontinental market prices. Now they'll not need to pay any extra volume."
Diamond World launched formal product sales of the precious metal through a programme where Sheikh Fazle Fahim, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Sector, was the principle guest.
Diamond World's import followed the declaration of gold import policy developed by the government in 2018 to completely clean the gold trade, produce import and export easier, stop smuggling and guarantee transparency in the trade.
The policy came when confronted with demand from jewellers after the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate seized enormous cache of gold from Apan Jewellers for failure showing valid documents.
Following formulation of the policy, the National Table of Earnings (NBR) allowed dealers and jewellers to declare their share of bullion and various other important metal in fiscal year 2018-19.
Agarwala said the NBR earned Tk 217 crore while 14,267 gold dealers declared their stocks.
Smuggled precious metal meets around 80 % of Bangladesh's gross annual demand for precious metal, which hovers between 20 and 40 tonnes.
In a least developed country like Bangladesh, this is a common phenomenon for big hauls of smuggled gold making headlines. How much seized precious metal portrays the true picture.
In 44 years since 1971, around 2.2 tonnes of gold worthwhile of over Tk 750 crore earned illegally made its method to the country's forex reserves.
A comparison would clearly depict how poorly Bangladesh has been undertaking in gold export when its neighbour India has been supplying 80 % of the handcrafted gold ornaments that the community needs a year.
In 2016, India exported gold ornaments worth $42 billion while the official figure for Bangladesh stood of them costing only $672.
Therefore the government formulated the country's initially gold import plan with special concentrate on increasing gold ornament export from Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Bank this past year sought applications for the appointment of gold sellers beneath the gold import policy.
Forty-seven requested the dealership while 18, including an exclusive bank, got the temporary licence for just two years.
The firms are Modhumoti Lender, Diamond World, Jewellery House, Rotno Gold Corner, Aroosa Gold Corp, Amin Jewellers, Sreeja Gold Palace, Jarwa Property, Milon Bazar, SQ Trading and Eng, MK International, Amin Jewellers Ltd, Buraq Commodities Exchange Co, Golden World Jewellers, Riya Jewellers, Laxmi Jewellers, BDEX Gold and Diamond, and D Damas.
Eleven measures were incorporated in the policy offering Bangladesh Bank the right to appoint sellers for importing gold bars.
According to the policy, the sellers could be an authorised lender, an individual-owned firm, a joint venture or a restricted company, which will be allowed to generate gold bars directly.
Manufacturers of ornaments might buy gold only from these dealers.
It had been made mandatory for the sellers to import gold through bonds, for which a relationship licence is crucial.
Agarwala said they cannot import gold even after obtaining the dealership licences from the central lender as a result of high import expense -- Tk 2,000 particular duty for each and every 11.66 grams, 15 % value-added tax (VAT) and 5 % advance tax (AT).
The federal government withdrew VAT and AT on gold import from this fiscal year and importers have to pay Tk 2,000 as specific duty for each and every 11.66-gram gold.
The withdrawal of the VAT features reduced import cost, according to Agarwala, also general secretary of Bangladesh Jewellers Samity.
He said Diamond Globe would import 500 kilograms of gold this fiscal time to create jewellery for household and international markets and to sell to traders.
Diamond World will demand up to 200 kilograms of the valuable metal for its own make use of and the others for the traders, according to Agarwala.
He said his company put on the NBR for bonded warehouse licence for gold to be able to export jewellery.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net