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Transit Facility: Govt to take fee, not duty Muhith tells of new rules for fixing

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Transit Facility
Govt to take fee, not duty
Muhith tells of new rules for fixing fees



Govt to take fee, not duty

Staff Correspondent

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the government is going to formulate new rules to fix fees for giving transit facility to India for transporting goods through Bangladesh.

"They will use our facilities to transport their goods. Our infrastructure will be used and that involves some costs for the government. So we'll have to take something; it may be called fee or anything," he told journalists after a meeting with the visiting mission chief of IMF at his ministry.

Muhith said the existing transit rules of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) will be amended and the amount of fees will be refixed.

The minister added a transit facility already exists through waterways and the country receives fees of around Tk 5 crore annually. But there has been no such facility for road and rail transport. So new set of rules will be formulated for all the transit routes.

In June the NBR issued a set of rules on transit and transhipment fees during the announcement of the national budget. However, the Indian government has demanded waiver after Bangladesh applied it to the existing waterway transit.

The minister said the transit fees imposed by the NBR have been kept in abeyance. Duty couldn't be charged on India for transportation of its goods through Bangladesh as we have given them transit facility, he added.

He said as per the international rules no duty can be imposed for giving transit but fees can be charged.

On the journalists' query as to whether the NBR circular was an outcome of misunderstanding, he said a bit of misunderstanding was there.

However, Muhith said though duty cannot be imposed for transit it can be charged for giving transhipment facilities. Bangladesh already has a rule in this regard.

The government had no ready statistics as to how much revenue it would earn, but there are several data available with other organisations. The government is going to hold a seminar soon in this regard.

The finance minister overruled the opposition's reservations about giving transit to India and said Bangladesh is a geographically transit country.

International Monetary Fund Mission Chief David Cowen led a six-member team at a meeting with Muhith. Prime Minister's Economic Affairs Adviser Mashiur Rahman, Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman and Finance Secretary Mohammad Tareq were present at the meeting.

Muhith said they discussed with the IMF delegation the extended credit facility and they (IMF) are likely to give $1 billion.

He added it is normally given for balance of payment support. He said now Bangladesh's import has increased requiring money for balance of payment support.

Asked whether the issue of political appointment of directors in the state-owned-banks (SOBs) came up for discussion during the talks, the minister said those were on the table but were non-issues.

He said the major issues were revenue mobilisation, power generation and budget cost of subsidy.
 
It seems like that awami league government are now wanting whole sale transport of indian goods without giving any limit, amount or criteria and of-course without paying of any duty or tax by the indians for their goods... :mad:. India will only pay a yearly fee for using these routes... so my recommendation is that Awami league stooge government should change the name of the deal from "TRANSIT TO INNDIA" to "LEASING BANGLADESHI ROUTES TO INDIA".... :mad:...

Even belarus recently imposed transit duty tax on the transit of Russian oil to Europe at the rate of $45 per metric ton of oil.

Here this minister is advocating taking of no duty charge on indian goods... just a yearly fee for maintanance... disgusting :mad:.
 
^ The best you can say he is higher educated. What else? All lot of educated people are corrupted in the world and away from true knowledge.

BTW, kaze ar kothay e to porichoy - abar notun kore ki chinte hobe bolun?
 
Muhith draws fire for his remarks
Staff Correspondent

The finance minister, Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, drew fire from a cross section of intelligentsia and political activists for making unbecoming remarks on the transit issue, undermining the anti-transit campaigners by calling them 素ools・

Many described Muhith痴 remarks as cavalier and irresponsible which exposed his attitude to undermine others opinions and views.

Muhith was not sincere in protecting the country痴 interests which was his obligatory duty while holding an important office of the government, said one of his critics who wanted not to be identified.

After a meeting with officials of the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday, the finance minister dubbed the anti-transit campaigners 素ools・ claiming that Bangladesh is geographically a transit country.

Political thinker and Dhaka University professor emeritus, Serajul Islam Choudhury, disagreed with his claim that Bangladesh is a transit country geographically. 腺angladesh is an independent and sovereign nation... branding the country as a transit country is not right,・he said.

禅he issue of allowing transit is a business and political issue. As it is a business, it needs to assess the profit and loss ratio. It is the duty of the government to protect the country痴 interests strongly. Then other factors come,・said Prof Sirajul Islam Chowdhury.

Leftist thinker Badruddin Umar, president of Jatiya Mukti Council, came down heavily on the finance minister. 禅hose who consider only Bangladesh is a transit country, I would like to call them 爽neducated・ Is it applicable only in case of Bangladesh? India too is a transit country, have they ever dared to seek transit through India?・

Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal general secretary Khalequzzman said, 糎hen one brands all the people in general as 吐ools・ the depth of his wisdom is easily understandable. Economist Anu Muhammad, also member secretary of the national committee for protection of oil, gas, mineral resources, power and ports, saw the minister痴 comment as utterly irresponsible. 践e did not act like a finance minister and was yet to come up with any statistics on profit and loss if Bangladesh award transit to India.

It had been said that the country would gain billions of dollars in revenue from transit. An impression was given that the country has no other option but rent out its the roads, railways and waterways,・he said.

Now we see that India is not willing to pay the duties and our government has also accepted that. It indicates that there remained many things behind the scenes while government is trying to deceive the people,・he added.

Economist Mahbub Ullah, also a professor of development studies at Dhaka University, said Bangladesh was not the only transit country in the world and nobody was rejecting its geographical characteristics.

The issue is not a unique one rather related to many other things such as security issues. We are allowing India to transport its goods from one of its parts to another・this is not transit,・he said.


The geo-political point of view also needs to be considered. We have two big neighbours who are rivals. We should not invite danger by harbouring one of the two rivals,・he pointed out.

KAS Murshid, research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said it was not wise to project huge amount of profit without being totally sure. 糎e need to consider the reality. If we create an unusual expectation among people and later it is found baseless, we might be in danger. T

The government should proceed cautiously with the delicate issue. It would have a boomerang-effect if the government spends huge amounts on it but later it yields nothing,・he said.

Dhaka University political science teacher Shantanu Majumder said, 禅he most important thing is how the country痴 interests are protected. None should be given undue privilege through the transit deals.
 
^ The best you can say he is higher educated. What else? All lot of educated people are corrupted in the world and away from true knowledge.

BTW, kaze ar kothay e to porichoy - abar notun kore ki chinte hobe bolun?

I said you dont know him so you are ignorant. He diverted all the US military aid of USA to Pakistan in 1971 to the refugee of then East Pakistan by lobbying US congress. He did not leave congress and UN premises till the end of war. Not only that he brought fresh impetus to the economic policy of Bangladesh.
and BTW, try to catch him in education if you can and see how competent you are. Forget his service to the country and politics.
 
He said as per the international rules no duty can be imposed for giving transit but fees can be charged.

Can anyone explain the significance of this line.??

If there is such a international rule,then I dont see anything wrong in this.
 
Can anyone explain the significance of this line.??

If there is such a international rule,then I dont see anything wrong in this.

I am not sure about the technical terms. What I am guessing duty was imposed upon the value of the product but fees can be charged on the quantity of the product. So if it were fees then I dont see any problem as long as the money looks green.
 
I am not sure about the technical terms. What I am guessing duty was imposed upon the value of the product but fees can be charged on the quantity of the product. So if it were fees then I dont see any problem as long as the money looks green.

Good..now this ought to answer those who oppose the new move.

India is not getting any exemption - rather an internationally accepted rule ,not to charge duty will be implemented and transit fees will be collected in its place.
 
I said you dont know him so you are ignorant. He diverted all the US military aid of USA to Pakistan in 1971 to the refugee of then East Pakistan by lobbying US congress. He did not leave congress and UN premises till the end of war. Not only that he brought fresh impetus to the economic policy of Bangladesh.
and BTW, try to catch him in education if you can and see how competent you are. Forget his service to the country and politics.

I see, he did a lot for the country. That's why critics, policy makers, teachers are criticizing him today.
 

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