Hailing the proposed budget for the upcoming 2021-22 fiscal, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) urged the government to review some of its proposals, including a 10 per cent cash incentive for non-cotton based garment exports.
“Bangladesh has a huge opportunity in grabbing the global market for non-cotton based readymade garment (RMG) exports as the demands have been increasing over the years,” said BGMEA President Faruque Hassan.
He was addressing a press briefing on the proposed budget held Saturday at the BGMEA headquarters in the capital.
He said the world consumption of non-cotton based textile items is 75 per cent and the demand is increasing 3.0-4.0 per cent annually.
“On the other hand, the annual demand for cotton items is rising at a rate of 1.0-2.0 per cent”.
Some 74.14 per cent locally made exportable RMG items was cotton based in FY 2018-19 reflecting the large dependency on cotton, the BGMEA president said.
Bangladesh has already set up its capacity with the installation of machinery in non-cotton RMG items manufacturing while the fabric is also available, he said adding now the country needs to be competitive in this segment.
The government’s support to provide an incentive in such manmade textile manufacturing and exporting will help increase the industry's competitiveness, which will also help raise the global market share.
“We have the opportunity to create fresh employment, attract new investment and thus increase the overall RMG exports,” he said demanding a 10 per cent cash incentive on non-cotton garment exports.
His other demands included the withdrawal of 10 per cent tax on cash incentive, increasing the existing incentive to 5.0 per cent from the existing 4.0 per cent for exports to non-traditional markets and continuation of 0.50 per cent source tax for the next five years.
