President of BTMA said because of the new duty price of a locally made 21-inch colour television set will range between Tk 11,000 and Tk 11,500 while price of an imported completely built-up (CBU) unit will hover between Tk 10,500 and Tk 11,000.

"In fact, there is no price difference between locally assembled and imported television sets," said BTMA President Mohabbat Ullah.

Speaking at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday the association leader said with the previous duty structure price of a locally made 21-inch colour television set was between Tk 9,000 and Tk 9,500 and price of an imported CBU was between Tk 10,000 and Tk 11,000 per unit.

The government has recently imposed an additional 22.5 percent regulatory duty on CKD units and only five percent on CBU units.

"The new duty will make locally assembled television sets costlier and encourage CBU importers," the BTMA president said.

If the government does not change its decision, the owners will be forced to close their plants, he said, adding that it may also create unemployment of a large number of people.

There are around 60 television manufacturing companies in Bangladesh. Presently, around 10,000 people are engaged directly in the industry while around 2.90 lakh involved indirectly.

The BTMA leader said the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on March 15 imposed five percent regulatory duty on import of CBU television sets and 22.5 percent on CKD units.

Before the imposition of new duty, overall duty burden on importing CBU units was 78.92 percent and on CKD units was 39.25 percent.

As some importers were making false declaration in importing CKD and trying to evade tax, the NBR imposed the new duty. Besides, the board was also facing some problem in tax assessment.

Commenting on NBR's logic that some importers were making false declaration, Mohabbat Ullah said the whole industry cannot suffer for a few people who in connivance with a section of customs officials evade taxes.

Echoing his comment Mofizur Rahman, general secretary of BTMA, said, "The government cannot prove that any member of our association is engaged in this connection."

Local companies started assembling of colour television sets after the government upped tax on import of CBU units from 58.88 percent in FY 2002-03 to 78.92 percent in 2003-04.

"We have capacity to meet 50 percent domestic demand by producing 30,000 units of colour television a month," Rahman said.