Businessmen in real estate and construction sectors want government’s supportive policy in the coming budget to keep the prices of construction materials stable.Appreciating the government’s recent move to resume new gas connection to household consumers, they said that this will help to overcome the ongoing sluggish trend in the real estate sector.
“But, this is not good enough to regain the full momentum of the sector, which has been experiencing very bad time for last few years,” said Tanvirul Haq Probal, former president of Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB).
He said there must be bold steps in the coming national budget so that prices of construction materials do not go up for any reason.
Probal suggested adopting appropriate policies so that producers of the MS rod and other construction materials could not raise the prices at their whims.
President of Bangladesh Association of Construction Industry (BAIC) Engr Aftabuddin Ahmed said the government should not raise value added tax (VAT) and customs duty on any raw materials of the construction materials.
“Any move to raise the taxes on the import of the raw materials may have a bad impact for the end users and the consumers finally have to pay the increased price,” he told UNB.
He also urged the government not to give any retrospective effect on tax and duty related matters, saying that such steps badly affect the whole construction sector.
Meanwhile, some steel manufacturing companies urged the government not to make any move to raise the duties on the import of billets, one of the main raw materials for MS rod.
In separate letters to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), they said that there is a move from some vested quarters to increase the duties on the import of billet.
“If this (increase of duty) happens in the coming budget, it will increase the price of MS rod, a vital ingredient for construction of infrastructure as well as the houses of common people,” said a company in its letter.
It said higher MS rod prices will hamper construction as a whole and various development projects of the present government as well.
Citing the incident in 2008-09, another steel manufacturing company said that if the duties on billets are raised, it may create the same situation resulting in skyrocketing price of MS rod because of its limited production in the country.
“The country’s present billet making capacity is far short of the rolled MS rod making capacity and requirements. As a result, a handful of limited billet manufacturers will get a chance to make windfall profits,” it said in a letter to the NBR. UNB
