BGMEA Demands Stimulus Package

BGMEA leaders today reiterated their demand for a stimulus package for the ready-made garment (RMG) sector to offset the adverse impact of the global financial crisis.

BGMEA President Abdus Salam Murshedy said the garment sector was ignored unfortunately in the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2009-10.

The RMG manufacturers had been lobbying with the ministers and other government high-ups for the last few months for the stimulus package as they are facing the crisis of global recession.

The finance minister in his budget speech on June 11 did not propose any stimulus package for the country's main export earning RMG sector although he proposed a stimulus package worth Tk 5,000 crore. But the minister did not mention which sector would be benefited from such reserved fund.

"We did not get anything from the interim stimulus package and in the proposed budget the RMG sector was bypassed which is very unfortunate for the sector," Murshedy said at a post-budget press conference at the BGMEA office.

He demanded 5 percent subsidy on bank interest rate and subsidy on diesel purchase at Tk 10 per litre for their survival during the recession.

The president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said the government should give export performance bonus or cash incentive at a rate of 10 percent against export.

He said the VAT on all usages of utilities by the garment factory owners should be withdrawn.

Murshedy criticised the provision to allow whitening of undisclosed money in the proposed budget, as the honest taxpayers would feel discourage to pay taxes.

The BGMEA chief also urged the government for reinstating the tax-holiday facility up to 2015 and fixing 1 percent import duty on export-oriented capital machinery.

The government should give long-term loan for setting up effluent treatment plants (ETPs) in the factories to save country from environmental pollution, he said.

He also urged the government for extending the loan rescheduling facility without down payment up to 2010 from the existing June 30, 2009.

"We demand that the taskforce committee on global recession will meet soon to give allocation for the RMG sector from the proposed stimulus package of Tk 5,000," he said.

News From: BGMEA