DHAKA : A delegation of BGMEA led by BGMEA President Mahmud Hasan Khan today met with Special Assistant to the Chief Advisor Dr. Anisuzzaman Chowdhury with a request to resolve various problems prevailing in the garment industry, according to a press release.
The meeting, organized at the office of the Ministry of Planning in Agargaon on 02 July 2025, included Vice President (Finance) Mizanur Rahman, Vice President Md. Shihab Uddoza Chowdhury and Member Md. Kamal Uddin among others in the BGMEA delegation. Also present in the meeting were Dr. Mostafa Abid Khan, SSGP, Component Manager-1 of the Economic Relations Division; Dr. Md. Rezaul Basar Siddiqui, Component Manager-2 SSGP; Nesar Ahmed, International Trade Expert, SSGP; Abul Kalam Azad, Joint Secretary and Mehedi Mosharraf Bhuiyan, Communication Specialist.
During the meeting, they openly discussed the current challenges of the ready-made garment industry, banking-related problems, NBR-related issues, gas supply situation in the industry and things to be done for renewable energy, improving the efficiency of Chittagong Port, removing complications in renewing trade licenses, ERC, IRC and other licenses and making them valid for at least 5 years, harassment of factories previously built under DAP by RAJUK and many other issues.
The meeting seriously discussed the loan classification policy of Bangladesh Bank. BGMEA President Mahmud Hasan Khan said that the loan installment repayment period has been reduced from 9 months to 3 months. Many times, entrepreneurs cannot repay the loan installments within this period due to financial reasons. Requesting to extend the loan installment repayment period to 6 months, Mahmud Hasan Khan said that if this is done, 500-600 garment factories will be saved from classified loans.
He also mentioned that special cash assistance has been reduced from 1% to 0.30% and alternative cash assistance from 4% to 1.5%. He expressed his opinion that gradually reducing the cash assistance rate is not helpful and timely for the garment industry. He requested to reconsider the decision on cash assistance in the interest of the industry and the country. In the meeting, BGMEA leaders recommended settling the tax deducted at source at the rate of 1% in the garment industry as the final tax liability at the end of the year.
In the discussion, they said that the refinancing scheme in the pre-shipment credit sector is currently closed. They requested to relaunch this scheme and make it effective until 2030, saying that it will help entrepreneurs in providing working capital. They also proposed the formation of a forced fund against exports with the help of entrepreneurs, from which the salaries of the workers of the factories concerned can be paid and other problems can be solved during the crisis.
BGMEA President Mahmud Hasan Khan said that customs-related procedures have a considerable impact on the export-import activities of the garment industry and to face these challenges, the production costs of the industry increase, and unnecessary delays occur in business processes. He said that in the current global trade context, it is essential to simplify, speed up and free from harassment the customs procedures to reduce the lead time and maintain the competitiveness of the industry. It was decided that a proposal will be given by BGMEA to increase the efficiency of the NBR, especially to make customs-related policies industry-friendly.
BGMEA leaders also requested to increase the efficiency of the Chittagong Port. The meeting said that the severe gas crisis has affected various industries including the garment industry. The BGMEA President stressed the need to immediately extract gas from the huge reserves of new gas wells discovered in Bhola and take it to the national grid to improve the gas supply situation. There was also discussion on increasing LNG imports to meet the gas demand in the industry.
At the meeting, the BGMEA delegation said that the use of renewable energy is essential to ensure environment-friendly production in the garment industry. They proposed that if the government sets up solar power plants on private land and canals and the electricity generated is put into the national grid on a PPP basis, it will be possible to get electricity at low cost. At the meeting, the BGMEA leaders said that if the government allocates land in the garment-dominated areas of Ashulia, Gazipur, the garment entrepreneurs are interested in establishing hospitals, housing, and schools for workers in phases on those lands. The BGMEA leaders sought the cooperation of Dr. Anisuzzaman Chowdhury, Special Assistant to the Hon'ble Chief Advisor, to restart the closed garment village establishment program in Munshiganj and to allocate land to develop an integrated industrial zone for small and medium factories in Chittagong.
Taking note of the statements of the BGMEA delegation, Dr. Anisuzzaman Chowdhury said that the government is fully aware of the garment industry and will provide all possible support to this industry.
