The Association also urged government to reduce custom duties on import of pre-fabricated raw materials of steel building products in the revised national budget of FY 2020-21.
SMBA raised the demands in a post-budget press briefing, addressed by its president Jowher Rizvi and general secretary Md Rashed Khan, at its office in the capital.
In a written statement, Khan said the government provides duty-free import facilities on steel finished products to some foreign companies for their establishment in BEZA, power plants and LNG units, despite local steel manufacturers’ ability to produce international standard products with all modern equipment.
“The existence of local steel manufacturers will be exposed to great risks if this situation prevails,” he said.
SBMA general secretary further pointed out that the commercial importers pay only 5 percent as custom duty (CD) in importing steel goods whereas local steel manufacturers have to pay 25 percent while importing their raw materials.
“The custom duty should be less for the manufacturers compared to commercial importers in the greater interests of country’s industrialization,” he observed.
In recent years, prefabricated steel buildings have become popular as these establishments are affordable, earthquake-tolerant and good for the entrepreneurs as it helps to maintain global compliance standards at low cost.
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