Govt moves to make gold-import policy

The government moves to remove the bar to gold import with a twin objective: check smuggling and make the precious metal available on the domestic market.

Under the move-in the wake of a desperate underworld in the trade--the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) recently formed a seven-member committee to review the existing bottlenecks in formal import of gold and place a report with its recommendation, officials said.

There is no formal import of gold in the country for complex procedures, including a prerequisite for obtaining the seal of approval from the central bank.

The initiative has been taken to expedite the formulation of the much-awaited gold policy that the government had planned to frame by December 2017.

Both public and private sector's recommendations will be incorporated into the gold policy to encourage its formal import by way of removing the roadblocks.

The committee, headed by additional secretary of the MoC Pranesh Rangan Shutradhar, also comprises representatives of the customs, the apex chamber, Bangladesh Jewelry Association, and the central bank.

When contacted Saturday, Mr Shutradhar said the committee has been formed to review the simplification of gold-import process.

"It would place a report to the high-ups shortly," he added.

In a recent meeting, a number of proposals came in the MoC to incorporate in the gold policy.

Customs officials proposed to allow import of gold through commercial banks under the bonded-warehouse facility, officials said.

Despite several combat efforts, the government could not rein in gold smuggling, reportedly mainly for high returns from trading it out to high-demand pockets.

Talking to the FE, Moinul Khan, Director General (DG) of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) and also member of the seven-man committee, said the panel would submit its report to the commerce secretary with recommendations for bringing transparency in import, tax collection and selling process of the precious metal.

If gold import is allowed through commercial banks, they will collect the taxes at the time of selling the metal to the importers after import under the bonded-warehouse facility, he said.

"VAT and income-tax commissioners will have the information of importers, stock of gold and its selling process," he added.

The DG thinks the gold policy in the offing would help check gold smuggling and increase its supply and export of gold jewelries. Formal import of gold would also help increase tax-revenue collection from the sector.

Under the policy, there might be hologram in the gold to ensure its purity, he said.

In the budget speech for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017-18, the finance minister also pledged to frame a gold policy by December 2017.

Last month, National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman Md Mosharrof Hossain Bhuiyan sent a Demy Official (DO) letter to the commerce secretary, Shuvashish Basu, requesting him to expedite the process of framing a gold policy in line with the budget speech of the finance minister.

In the DO letter, the NBR chairman said the CIID, Bangladesh Jewelers Samity, and Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) sent their respective recommendations and draft gold policy to the NBR.

"The new policy may include some of their recommendations including relaxing the Bangladesh Bank's regulations, simplified procurement and monitoring, quality and purity of gold," the letter says.

Bangladesh has no source of gold other than recycled and imported ones under baggage rules, it pointed out.

"Although gold can be imported under the existing law with the permission of BB, importers found the system complex," the NBR chairman said in the letter.

In recent times, no gold bar or bullions were imported commercially, he mentioned. Nor even local jewelers have shown any interest in taking BB permission to import gold.

"Such complexities also cause illegal import, depriving the public exchequer of due taxes," it added.

In the last nine years, the NBR sleuths have seized about 4130.425 kilograms of illegally imported gold.

Bangladesh Jewelers Association representatives said it is a troublesome task to obtain permission of the BB even after opening Letter of Credit for importing gold.

Prices of gold are changing frequently so there might be option for import through TT (telegraphic transfer) alongside LC process, they said.

They also propose allowing import of hand-carried gold under proper supervision by the licence-holder importers.

Currently, customs duty on gold imports is Tk 3000 per bhori.

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