Bangladesh tanners ask for tax concessions
The Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) has asked the government to include tax benefits on imported chemicals as part of its plans for helping different parts of the economy recover from covid-19.
At the moment, chemicals that tanners import for leather manufacturing attract customs duty of 5% and value-added tax of 15%. The BTA has asked the government to lower these to 3% and 7.5% respectively.
In the first eight months of the current financial year (July 2020 to February 2021) the Bangladesh leather industry achieved export revenues of just over $600 million, a decline of 4.1% compared to the same months in the previous financial year.
Shipments of finished leather fell by 12.9% to $84.2 million. Exports of leathergoods fell by 9.4% to $155 million. For leather footwear, however, the value of exports of leather footwear was flat at $377 million.
