The National Board of Revenue has formed a committee for formulating a guideline to examine if the newly established star-rated hotels can be provided duty benefits on import of furniture, equipment and other items needed for the hotels, officials said.
The committee will recommend whether the revenue board should provide such benefits in view of prospect of attracting foreign direct investment for developing the tourism industry in the country, they said.
‘In general, the revenue board is not in favour for giving duty exemption to any particular hotel. Either the NBR will give the facility to all hotels or to none. So it wants to examine the pros and cons of such duty exemption,’ said an NBR official.
He said that Bangladesh economy was flourishing day by day and it is expected that many upgraded-hotels such as four-star and five-star ones would be established in the country.
‘So we need to examine if those hotels can be provided any duty benefits at all,’ he said, adding that the revenue board will have to be sure about the ratings (five-star, four-star or three-star) of the hotels.
It will also analyse the possible FDI inflow, revenue loss and other issues before accepting or rejecting applications for duty exemption by new hotels, he added.
Last week, the NBR formed a three-member committee headed by NBR member (customs) Sultan Md Iqbal in this regard.
Earlier, Shena Hotel Development Ltd and La Rose Centre applied for duty exemption on import of furniture and equipments for their two hotels in Chittagong and Sylhet respectively that involved around Tk 145 crore of revenues.
In their applications, they requested the NBR to impose duty on import items considering those items as capital machinery as they are making the investment to promote tourism and services sectors.
Shena Hotel Development Ltd, the owning company of Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel Dhaka, is constructing its second hotel — Radisson Bay View — in Chittagong city while La Rose Centre has constructed La Rose Hotel and Suites in Sylhet city.
In this context, the NBR feels the necessity of a policy for accepting or rejecting such duty-exemption appeal, they said.
In 2012, the NBR rejected an application of Sea Pearl Beach Resort and Spa Limited seeking such exemption though it had provided such exemption to few hotels like Westin Hotel and Hotel Sarina in Dhaka, Hotel Seagull in Cox’s Bazar and Bashundhara City Shopping Mall.
Radisson applied to the NBR for exemption of around Tk 137 crore while La Rose sought for exemption of around Tk 8 crore, the NBR officials said, adding that Radisson demanded itself as a five-star hotel while La Rose called itself a three-star one.
Among other things, a hotel needs bedding items, kitchenware, dinnerware, furniture, and electronics and electrical equipments.
-With New Age input
