Old car importers have urged the government to allow import of commercial vehicles aged more than five years to close the shortage of public transportation in the country.
The Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicles Importers and Dealers Association also called for eliminating discrimination in duty structure in importing reconditioned and brand new vehicles.
The demands came at a ceremony on Thursday marking the 25th founding anniversary of the BARVIDA organised at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the city.
Commerce minister Tipu Munshi addressed the programme as the chief guest while Prime Minister's adviser on private industry and investment Salman F Rahman attended it as the guest of honour.
Presided over by BARVIDA president Habib Ullah Dawn, the function was also addressed by National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FBCCI) Md Shafiul Islam, BRAC bank managing director and CEO Selim R. F. Hussain.
Delivering his speech, the commerce minister said the government is positive about resolving the problems of the businesses and it will consider the demands of the reconditioned vehicles importers.
In terms of taxation, the government wants to come out of outdated thoughts and the NBR will surely listen to the trade bodies to ease the existing problems, Mr Munshi added.
The NBR chairman said there is no possibility of scrapping current facilities that the reconditioned car importers enjoy.
He said the revenue authority will think how to facilitate the importers of electric and hybrid cars as these are environment-friendly vehicles.
Referring to the discrimination in duty structure in importing brand new and reconditioned vehicles, the BARVIDA president said reconditioned car importers contributed Tk 37.5 billion as revenue in the last fiscal and if the duty structure becomes similar for both types of vehicles, revenue would be increased by another Tk 10 billion.
He said the government does not allow BARVIDA members to import reconditioned vehicles aged more than five years but it should be reconsidered for the import of commercial vehicles at least to resolve the acute crisis in the public transportation sector.
People are purchasing more private cars because of scarcity of public transportation, which increases traffic congestion, he said.
The FBCCI president said the government should consider BARVIDA's demand for importing commercial vehicles to ease the problems in the public transportation sector.
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