Foreign-made mobile handsets to be costlier

Foreign-made mobile phone handsets will be costlier as imposing of twp percent surcharge has been proposed on the import of mobile handsets, reports BSS.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith today proposed it while placing the national budget for fiscal 2018-19 in the Jatiya Sangsad.

At the same time, he also proposed to exempt surcharge on mobile manufacturing. “In order to flourish mobile manufacturing industry and to attract investment in this sector, I am proposing to issue a separate SRO allowing the VAT exemption facility on mobile telephone set manufacturing,” he added.

Muhith also proposed to reduce the duties on some raw materials of cellular phones in this budget to facilitate cell phone manufacturing.

He said having duty benefits on some raw materials and parts, some local manufacturers have started manufacturing and assembling cell phones in Bangladesh recently.