Bangladesh FY24 Budget Proposes Duties on VT

Bangladesh businesses urged the government to withdraw additional duties for vertical transportation (VT) proposed in the FY24 budget and integrate them into the list of capital machinery to help the industry cope with the current economic crisis, the Dhaka Tribune reports. In the proposed budget, the additional import duty on lifts may raise prices by at least 20% at the consumer level, as the government proposed hiking the import duty from 15% in FY23 to 25.27%. The proposed budget, if approved, will also increase the import duty of fully manufactured lifts by 10.75%, resulting in a price difference of 37% between fully manufactured imported lifts and locally produced lifts, while local manufacturers have a mere 10% capacity to serve the market. Additionally, it was proposed to raise the import duty for escalators to 43% for FY24, which was just 11% in FY23. Taking all this into account, the Bangladesh Elevator, Escalators and Lift Importers Association (BEELIA) urged the government to institute safety and standard policies with fitness certificate policies and form regulatory bodies to build a sustainable local industry. The raised duties are part of an effort to protect domestic industries, as well as to generate employment and reduce import bills, and the duty has been proposed to be in force until June 30, 2025, to promote local manufacturing. BEELIA also expressed its determination to work with the government in finding an alternative to import dependency and develop the local industry.