Workers of a garment factory in Bangladesh ’ s industrial belt Savar , on the outskirts of capital Dhaka , demonstrated on ‘ May |
Day ’ demanding arrears . Over 650 workers of one Abbas Apparels Ltd ., in the morning , came down on the Dhaka-Aricha highway and |
demonstrated peacefully for hours before police took them away upon assurance .
According to what could be known to Apparel Online , the garment workers of the factory were being paid ‘ irregularly ’. Some alleged , they had arrears of two months .
Poly Saha , a demonstrating worker , said that the factory management had assured them of clearing all dues , “ but when we went to the factory , we saw it was padlocked and there was nobody from the management there . We have been thus forced to come down to the streets .” The protests that lasted for nearly
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three hours had halted vehicular movement along the primary link road between Aricha and Dhaka , according to police . Being a national holiday on the occasion of May Day , the tailback that ensued was relatively short .
Khorshed Alam , Additional Police Superintendent of Savar circle , told Apparel Online that the workers were demonstrating for dues and that lawmen took them off the highway peacefully in the late afternoon .
It is to be noted that nobody from the factory management could be found at site or in the factory premises .
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In the backdrop of a likelihood that authorities will keep the Source Tax for Bangladesh ’ s garment industry unchanged , the apparel suppliers have called for a full withdrawal of the tax for ‘ a short while ’, saying it would be a big boost to the manufacturing sector ’ s target of hitting US $ 50 billion in exports by 2021 .
Speaking at a pre-budget meeting with the National Board of Revenue ( NBR ), Siddiqur Rahman , President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association ( BGMEA ), said that the Source Tax amounts to around BDT 2,500 crore on the current export volume of US $ 30 billion .
“ This is not a big amount and it can be overlooked at the moment to help the industry grow . Also , this amount will not affect the economy much , considering the
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direct and indirect employment opportunity this sector offers ,” he said . Bangladesh currently extracts a 0.7 per cent tax on total export proceeds on apparel items .
BGMEA President also pitched for reducing the Corporate Tax for apparel industry to 10 per cent from the prevailing 12 per cent . “ The RMG industry is generating big sum on Corporate Tax . But many factories are closing down due to poor industry conditions . At this point , you ( NBR ) need to bring the corporate tax down to 10 per cent .” Also present in the meeting , Mansoor Ahmed , first Vice President – Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association ( BKMEA ), pitched for Government incentives for the knitwear industry : “ For various reasons , growth in the knitwear sector has slumped .
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What it needs now is a boost from the Government .”
Among those present in the meeting were NBR Chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan , member Firoz Shah Alam , and Bangladesh Special Textile and Power Mill Association leader Sheikh Abdul Hakim .
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In a previous pre-budget discussion held between apparel manufacturers and the NBR earlier , the Tax Authority had hinted that Bangladesh will keep the current source taxing policy unchanged while formulating the budget for FY 2018-19 . |