Bangladesh offers duty benefit for Bhutanese goods

Bangladesh's customs authority has provided duty benefits to 43 types of products from Bhutan to enable goods from the land-locked nation to get better market access here, according to a notification issued by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) earlier this week.

The NBR move comes after nearly two years since Bangladesh signed a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with Bhutan to increase bilateral trade between the two South Asian nations.

As per the notification, 43 types of Bhutan's exported goods, including milk, natural honey, wheat flour, jams, fruits, jellies, cement clinker, portland cement, particle board wood, ferro-silicon, rod and wooden furniture, will not face customs duty, supplementary duty or regulatory duty for entering Bangladesh.

However, importers will have to pay value added tax and other duties.

Major products include milk, natural honey, wheat flour, jams, fruits, jellies, cement clinker, portland cement, particle board wood, ferro-silicon, and rod

Goods on which supplementary duty (SD) is applied at the domestic stage will however face an equal amount of the SD during imports from Bhutan, said a senior official of the NBR.

The benefit becomes effective immediately, according to the NBR.

Under the agreement, Bangladesh has been enjoying duty benefit on exports of 90 local products since July 1 this year. Bhutan was also supposed to get the benefit from the same time but the revenue authority could not complete all the required procedures until recently.