Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has informed the National Parliament that the government has provided timely tariff concessions on the import of raw materials required for the production and assembly of various international-standard digital devices within the country.
The prime minister shared this information on Wednesday afternoon while responding to a query from Sultana Ahmed (Reserved Seat-317, Women’s Seat-17) during the parliamentary question-and-answer session. Deputy Speaker Barrister Kaiser Kamal presided over the session.
The prime minister said special concessions are being granted for the domestic production and assembly of technological products, including desktops, laptops, all-in-one PCs, notebooks, notepads, tablets, servers, printers, scanners, routers, network devices, monitors, digital watches, and mobile phones.
Regarding the manufacturing of these products, customs duties exceeding 1% on imported raw materials, as well as all supplementary duties, regulatory duties, and value added tax (VAT), have been waived.
Similarly, for assembly of these items, customs duties exceeding 5%, along with all supplementary duties, regulatory duties, and VAT on raw material imports, have also been waived.
Tarique expressed his hope that this timely government decision would foster the development of the local information and communication technology (ICT) sector and further strengthen the “Made in Bangladesh” brand on the global stage.
He added that the sector is poised to play a significant role in attracting substantial foreign investment.
Discussing the long-term impact, he said these tariff benefits would make various technological products more affordable and accessible to the general public.
This initiative is expected to create unprecedented employment opportunities for the country’s vast youth population across multiple sectors, including education, startups, freelancing, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
