CPD RMG Study Stitching a better future for Bangladesh
Every day, CPD RMG Study team reveals what’s on our economic and apparel radar and curates a selection of the best reports, opinion, and analysis you may have missed.
Many factories yet to pay due salaries of workers
Nearly 40 percent of the garment factories, most of which are small and not members of any trade bodies like the BGMEA or the BKMEA, are yet to pay the workers’ salaries or festival bonus although Eid-ul-Fitr is just three days away. Most of the 4.4 million garment workers employed in nearly 5,500 factories are scheduled to go back to their village to celebrate Eid with their near and dear ones. Primarily, a little more than 400 factories, whose employee count ranges from 90 to 300, were listed as doubtful of being able to pay their workers before Eid. Of them, some are yet to pay either the salaries for the month of May or festival bonus.
Chittagong Port to have increased cargo handling capacity
The New Mooring Container Terminal (NMCT) at the Chittagong Port will be fully operational by the end of this year with installation of 10 key gantry cranes. Presently, the terminal, opened in October 2015, has no gantry crane. Container handling at the port is being conducted by using the cranes of ships. The shipping ministry has already completed the tender process for procuring four gantry cranes. The government has undertaken a Tk 12.20 billion project to procure equipment for the NMCT.
Traders’ bank account info mandatory for getting VAT rebate
Traders will have to disclose the relevant bank account information to the tax authority as proof of transactions for getting tax credit or VAT rebate. The Bangladesh government included a provision in the Value-Added Tax Act-1991 in this connection through the Finance Bill-2018 of the national budget for the next fiscal year of 2018-2019. The decision was taken to prevent misuse of input tax credit system and illegal VAT rebate taken by businesses through providing false transaction information.
