Importers of essential commodities and raw materials also demanded proper management at ports and an end to the harassment of customs and shipping agents.

At a recent meeting of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) standing committee on import, its senior vice president Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu urged the government to introduce a goods and services tax (GST) instead of the value added tax (VAT) to help ease revenue collection and reduce evasion of tax.

Such harassment costs additional time and money for traders, raising business and production costs, an FBCCI press release said citing the importers.

Customs authority fines up to 300 per cent for unintentional mistakes in the harmonised system (HS) codes and shipping agents charge various other fees, which cost additional Tk10 crore per day, Bangla media quoted importers as telling the committee.

Goods are often sent to different university labs to be examined, and this takes more than a month, causing interruption in the supply chain, businessmen rued.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)