[ First page ] 2010-04-26The country's mobile phone importers Sunday demanded massive reduction in handset taxes, saying the move will boost government revenue and stop illegal import of millions of cellular phones.
Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association (BMPIA) made the demand to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, saying that smuggled sets have flooded the market, almost driving the legal powers out of business.
"Around 0.2 million mobile phone sets are illegally entering the country every month," said Faisal Alim, the secretary general of the association.
The government can easily stop entry of at least 0.15 million sets, if it slaps a 100-taka flat duty on each imported set, he said, unveiling the phone importers demand in a press briefing in the city.
According to the association, Bangladesh market has a demand of 0.75 million sets, with the country's mobile phone users reaching 55 million at the end of March.
But Alim said heavy taxes on mobile phones have led to uneven competition with smuggled phones. "A lot of traders who import mobile phone have almost been forced out of business due to unfair pricings by the illegal importers."
"The smugglers can offer cheap prices because they don't pay taxes. Whereas, we pay 12 per cent specific duty on every handset we import. The amount is too much," he said.
Alim demanded the authorities fix total taxes including the specific on mobile handset at Tk100. "It will stop money laundering and help the government earn billions of taka of extra revenue."
BMPIA secretary general said a fixed duty of Tk 300 per set in 2008-9 resulted in 21 per cent increase in import of mobile phone handsets. The growth slowed to 4.66 per cent the following year after the government slapped 12 per cent duty.
He said, "It takes only Tk 100-150 to bring a handset into the country through illegal way, which encourages illegal imports and drains revenues."
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