BGMEA arranged a press briefing to express its opinions on the 2016-17 national budget today.
BGMEA President Md. Siddiqur Rahman briefed the journalists where Senior Vice President Faruque Hassan, Vice President S.M. Mannan (Kochi), Vice President (Finance) Mohammed Nasir,  Vice President Mahmud Hasan Khan (Babu)  and Directors of BGMEA were also present.
The BGMEA President thanked the government for keeping some industry-friendly provisions in the budget proposal like tax-free import of pre-fabricated materials and capital machinery. However, he on the same breath, expressed surprise on the budget proposal of increasing source tax from 0.6 percent to 1.5 percent for the RMG industry.
The President urged the government to keep the source tax like that of the 2014-15 fiscal which was 0.3 percent and keep the corporate tax for garment industry at 10 percent as it was.
“The government envisions to secure 8% GDP growth to earn the middle-income country status which will be only be possible if the readymade garment industry grow because its contribution to national GDP is about 13%”, he added.
So, BGMEA also requested the government to keep at least Tk 5000 crore as incentives for the RMG industry for ensuring its smooth growth.