Terming the businessmen who are misusing the bonded warehose facility and depriving the country of revenue as 'national enemies', The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to become harsh on the errant traders.
A senior official of the Bond Commissionerate said that they had found misuse of this bond facility increased significantly in the recent times, causing a huge revenue loss for the revenue-collecting authority.
"That's why we have decided to intensify our drive against these traders and become tough against them," he said.
He also said that NBR chairman is very serious about curbing this misuse and he has directed all concerned to check this irregularity. Couple of days back, NBR chairman in a pre-budget meeting with associations, organisations and persons related with service sector issued firm warning against the bond misusers.
"The bond misusers are the national enemy, they will not be speared," he told the meeting.
He also said that the NBR would take immediate effective punitive measures as per the law against the misusers of the bond facility.
FBCCI President Abdul Matlub Ahmad, who was present in that meeting, also talked about the misuse of the bond facilities by dishonest businessmen. According to the system, the export-oriented industries are allowed to import duty-free materials under the bonded warehouse system.
The bonded warehouse facility is important to export-oriented industries, especially the garment factories, in reducing lead-time and keeping product prices competitive.
A section of businessmen misuse the bonded warehouse facility by selling the duty-free imported raw materials and finished goods to the local market.
License holders also sometimes use fake addresses to escape the monitoring mechanism of the customs authorities, while some others do not maintain records of their export and import activities to abuse the facility.
The bonded warehouse license is given to import raw materials without any duty charges against a commitment to export the finished products, which makes exports more competitive. All the imported goods are stored at the bond holder's warehouses, and in case of failure to export, the importers are to pay duty charges and taxes for the rest of the goods imported.
According to the Bond Commissionerate to encourage the RMG sector 90 percent woven items, 45 percent garment accessories and 35 percent knit items imported under the bond system. Rest of the demands are fulfilled locally. More than 2000 RMG factories are enjoying this bonded warehouse facility while the number of plastic industries is 150.
A senior NBR official said that the government wanted to facilitate the export oriented industries of the country to be more competitive in the world market. "But that not means that this facility will be misused depriving the revenue collection, so we have to take tough measurers against this," he said.
The NBR has got a gigantic target of Tk 176,370 crore revenue collection for the 2015-16 fiscal against Tk 135,028 last year.
This year, the target was set to collect Tk 64,971 crore from income tax, while Tk 64,262 crore from VAT and Tk 18,752 from import duty.  The target for export duty has been fixed at Tk 37 crore, excise duty at Tk 1,239 crore and supplementary duty at Tk 25,875.     ?UNB