Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine August Issue 2018 | Page 30
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‘Taskforce' formed to identify foreigners
working illegally; fails to make a mark
Formed in March 2016 to
prevent evasion of taxes amidst
allegations that a large number
of undocumented foreigners are
employed in the country’s RMG
sector, the Government taskforce
(that had representations from
a host of Government and non-
governmental entities including
Department of Immigration and
Passport, Bangladesh Chambers
of Commerce and Industry,
Bangladesh Export Processing
Zones Authority, National Security
Intelligence, National Board of
Revenue’s VAT and income tax
wings, etc.) has allegedly failed to
make much headway even after a
period of two years.
It may be mentioned here that
as per an unpublished study of
Dhaka University and The Centre
of Excellence of BGMEA, there are
around 34,340 expatriates holding
top positions in RMG factories, who
are remitting around US $ 2.36
billion in salary and allowances.
The Government agencies are,
however, said to have no statistics
on the number of foreign workers.
After its formation, the taskforce
has reportedly visited 20 factories
out of 40 listed for inspection but
found only a few foreigners illegally
working in those factories, which is
said to be way lower than what the
taskforce had initially expected.
The NBR officials reportedly
underlined concealing of
information pertaining to foreigners
working illegally by the concerned
factories for the lesser number of
detections, as the taskforce has
reportedly visited the factories with
prior notice.
Meanwhile the NBR is said to have
reconstituted the taskforce recently
to bring momentum in the activities
of the taskforce and to avoid any
legal complications.
Good news for RMG sector as Bangladesh
signs deals for 6,000 MW electricity
Smarting under power crisis for
long, Bangladesh’s readymade
garment sector can hope for better
days following signing of two
separate agreements to generate
6,000 megawatts of electricity
(largely from liquefied natural
gas), recently.
The first deal was signed between
Bangladesh’s Summit Group,
Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation
and US’s General Electric
Company, while the other one
was signed between Bangladesh
Power Development Board (BPDB)
and GE Switzerland. As per the
first deal signed between Summit,
Mitsubishi and GE, the concerned
parties reportedly agreed to
invest US $ 3 billion to establish
five power plants, two LNG
terminals and one oil terminal.
In the other deal, BPDB and GE
Switzerland agreed to set up a
3,600 MW LNG-based combined
cycle power plant in Moheshkhali,
Cox’s Bazar at an estimated cost
of US $ 4.4 billion.
As per media reports,
Senior Vice-President of the
infrastructure business division
of Mitsubishi Corporation Tetsuji
Nakagawa, President and Chief
Executive of GE Power Russell
Stokes and Chairman of Summit
Group Muhammed Aziz Khan
represented their respective
companies in the signing
ceremony.
It may be mentioned here that
Bangladesh’s total current
installed electricity generation
capacity is around 16,000 MW
while the demand for electricity
is projected to reach 34,000
MW by 2030. Under the given
30 Apparel Online Bangladesh | August 2018 | www.apparelresources.com
circumstances, many garment
manufacturing units are
reportedly languishing due to
lack of sufficient power supply.