Saving dollars won't always yield good results: NBR chairman

National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem on Wednesday said saving dollars will not always yield good results.

"Dollars cannot be saved in all cases. Imports of raw materials and machinery cannot be stopped to save the greenback," he said at a press conference organised on the occasion of International Customs Day at the NBR headquarters in Dhaka.

Referring to the spread of panic over the greenback crisis, he said, "The dollar crisis is not a matter of fear mongering."

Since the Russia-Ukraine war started around a year ago, the demand for the greenback has increased in Bangladesh following volatility in the global dollar market.

As the US dollar is appreciating against the taka, the NBR has imposed additional duties on several products to reign in their imports. Besides, some steps have been taken by the central bank as well. Despite that, there is no ease in the dollar price.

"We[NBR] have nothing else to do except increase the duty to save dollars. We have increased duties to discourage imports of certain products. However, daily necessities such as food and fuel must be imported. We don't want imports to stop. Stopping imports is not our job," said the NBR chairman.

He also stated that the tax burden is not primarily to blame for the rise in commodity prices.

Muneem said, "It always appears that reducing the customs duty will reduce the price of goods. Duty is seen as the cause of cost increases in any case, not only in the case of gas. But they do not want to focus on whether there is inefficiency, waste, or corruption."

"But as we have examined, the tax burden does not have a significant impact on the increased commodity prices," he added.

The NBR chairman pointed out that there was no expected progress in the collection of duties in the first six months of the current fiscal year because of the reduction of import duty rates on some products.

"Taking into consideration the interests of commoners, the duty on some products has been reduced. That is why the collection of customs has decreased," he added. 

Additionally, due to the slowdown in international trade, there has been a slowdown in local business, and because of this, the revenue collection from imports is decreasing, he mentioned.

According to the NBR, the customs' duty collection has increased by 9.25% year-on-year in the last six months.

In response to a question, Muneem said, "Duty reduction is not the job of the tariff commission or the commerce ministry. Other ministries make suggestions only from their own point of view, but the NBR has to make decisions considering the overall context."

"We have to take decisions considering whether the local industry is hampered or smuggling increases due to duty reductions and increases. It is not like making decisions as per a list provided by any authorities," he added.

Besides highlighting some activities of the NBR to prevent trade-based money laundering, he mentioned that there are other organisations, including the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, working on this issue.

"Actually, we are doing nothing," he said, responding sarcastically to questions from journalists. 

International Customs Day Thursday 

The International Customs Day will be celebrated nationwide on 26 January with the theme "Nurturing the Next Generation: Promoting a Culture of Knowledge-Sharing and Professional Pride of Customs". 

Marking the day, a seminar has been organised at the Hotel InterContinental in the capital on Thursday.

Senior officials of the NBR were present at the press conference.