Ferro silicon, an alloy of iron and silicon used in the production of steel, will no longer enjoy duty free access to Bangladesh markets.

 

It is one of the items removed from the list of 18 items from Bhutan that gets zero duty access to Bangladesh under the bilateral trade agreement between the two countries.

 

"We have local ferrosilicon industries that import raw materials from abroad paying duties and taxes and with ferrosilicon from Bhutan imported zero duty, there is discrimination which is why we request for it to be deleted," the secretary of the ministry of commerce who led the Bangladesh delegation, Md. Ghulam Hussain, said. "But, we will replace it with some other item."

 

Responding to the request at the Bhutan-Bangladesh bilateral meeting on trade and transit yesterday, the Bhutanese government led by the economic affairs secretary, Dasho Sonam Tshering, agreed to delete ferrosilicon from the list given duty free excess to the Bangladesh market since 2009.

 

"Bangladesh will choose only two from the six to replace ferrosilicon and gum raisin," joint secretary of the ministry of economic affairs, Sonam P Wangdi, said. "Ferrosilicon produced in the country gets good price in the Indian market where it is a good player,"he said adding that it is only exported to Bangladesh because it earns hard currency. "Ferrosilicon already has a good market in India and we need to promote other goods."

 

Bhutanese officials also requested that free custom duty on export be given to an additional 16 items, including ferrosilicon, apart from the existing list of 18 items. "We have only requested for free custom duty but other taxes such as VAT and TDS would be levied by Bangladesh on these items unlike the list of 18 which is free of all duty and tax," Sonam P Wangdi said.