Structural reforms essential to face LDC graduation challenges: DCCI president

There is no alternative to a radical reform and modernisation of the existing framework related to trade and investment, said the President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) Taskeen Ahmed yesterday (19 January). 

Speaking during a courtesy call to the Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin, he highlighted areas such as import-export policy, revenue structure, financial management, logistics policy, the national budget, and monetary policy as crucial to addressing the challenges of Bangladesh's post-LDC transition.

Mentioning that Bangladesh could not take adequate preparations for the post-LDC era challenges due to the Covid pandemic, followed by the Russia-Ukraine war, unrest in the Middle Eastern region and later political instability in the country in 2024, he suggested that the government may consider deferring the graduation process for a while to take all out preparations, because, once the country is graduated Bangladesh will lose a lot of preferential treatment in the international market, reads a press release. 

He also said that it is necessary to formulate a "smooth transition strategy" for proper implementation based on a series of public-private dialogues. 

Besides, the government has to provide necessary support to the private sector to maintain the flow of business and investment by addressing all the challenges even after the LDC graduation, he said. 

Taskeen Ahmed also said the recent initiatives taken by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to increase VAT, supplementary duty, excise duty and taxes on more than a hundred products have already caused concern among the mass people and businessmen of the country. 

"If this move is implemented in the current economic situation of the country, it will put more pressure on the lives of the common people by increasing inflation, fueling the cost of doing business and the move might hinder both local and foreign investment," he said. 

He further said, "Although the government has informed that it would reconsider the proposed tariff hike in several sectors, the DCCI president said that the move to increase VAT, and tax in this current situation is not acceptable especially ahead of the upcoming Ramadan."

Taskeen Ahmed later, called for strengthening market monitoring activities to remove the existing irregularities in the supply chain management of products to control inflation in the market. 

He also said the Commerce Ministry should take strict measures to increase the supply of essential products, monitor the market and ensure the availability of essential goods in the market, especially during the month of Ramadan.