5 lakh mobile sets enter illegally every month

At least five lakh mobile sets out of about 45 lakh are entering the country every month in an illegal way due to imposition of more tax on import of mobile phone sets.
Mobile Phone Importers Association leaked out the information at a pre-budget discussion at the spectra convention centre in the city on Saturday.
Leaders of the association mentioned that they are importing more than five crore mobile phone sets every year and it would increase to seven crore within this year.
If the Government did not reduce tax on mobile set importing, it would be loser financially because of large scale entry of illegal mobile sets in the country, they apprehended and demanded imposition of tax including VAT at Tk 100 per set only to stop the illegal practice.
Former adviser to the caretaker government Dr Mirza Azizul Islam and president of parliamentary standing committee for Post and Telecommunications Hasanul Huq Inu, MP, former DCCI president Saiful Islam, acting president of Mobile Phone Importers Association Mustafa Rafiqul Islam and NBR representative Zakir Hussein, among others, spoke on the occasion.
The government should reduce tax on mobile phone set importing to stop illegal entry of mobile sets, Mirza Azizul Islam said, adding that both the demand and supply are important for the development of a sector. Hasanul Huq Inu expressed the same view saying that
the sector should give chance for development to implement the digital Bangladesh according to the government vision 2021.
He opined to impose tax at Tk 100 for each set. He said angrily that bidi industries are going to be destroyed due to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Ministry which was a cause of losing jobs to 25 lakh people.
The MP emphasised on setting up soft wear industries to reduce import of computer machinery and information cell centres in each village to digitalise Bangladesh.

Courtesy of The New Nation