Duty waiver to boost local manufacturing of motorcycles
The revenue authority has waived the supplementary duty on the imports of motorcycle in completely non-assembled forms for the firms that have set up manufacturing facilities in Bangladesh or are set to do so.
The move comes following demands from two-wheeler manufacturers and assemblers.
“This is going to benefit consumers as the bike market will be competitive further,” said a senior official of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Over the last two-three years, the motorcycle market expanded fast, buoyed by price cuts, after the government slashed the SD by 25 percentage points to 20 percent on the imports of components of two-wheelers to encourage domestic manufacturing in 2016-17.
The latest SD waiver will benefit the firms that have either established manufacturing facilities in Bangladesh or are in the process of doing so.
More than half a dozen firms are setting up plants to assemble and make components of two-wheelers to tap the local demand.
The NBR said the privilege would be applicable to two categories of firms: the firms that make chassis, one or more components of motorcycles locally, and the firms that import part or full chassis and make one or two components in Bangladesh.
Assemblers who import bikes in complete knock-down (CKD) forms, chassis and other parts but do not make any components locally will not get the duty benefit, according to the notification issued on March 18.
The bike market grew 24 percent year-on-year to about 4.80 lakh units in 2018. It is expected to be around 6 lakh units by the end of 2019, according to industry operators.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net