DHAKA, August 11, 2022 (BSS) - The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, Dhaka (MCCI) today urged the authorities concerned to provide
issuance and renewal of trade licenses for five years alongside the regular
one-year period to simplify further trade and commerce.

The businesses alleged that they had to spend money and time for renewal of
trade licenses every year for which there is a need to keep the provision for
issuing trade licenses for five years.

As a result, the government would be able to realize trade license fees of
five years at a time while the businesses would be able to engage their
valuable time in other important purposes.

They came up with such demand at a discussion organised by the MCCI on "Ease
of Doing Business: Issuance/Renewal of Licenses for 5 Years" today at the
MCCI in the capital's Motijheel area.

Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation
(DSCC) spoke at the event as the chief guest while MCCI president Md. Saiful
Islam, its senior vice-president Kamran T. Rahman, vice-president Habibullah
N. Karim also spoke.

In response to the demand from the business community, DSCC Mayor Taposh said
it is not a problem for his corporation to provide license renewals to the
businesses for 5 or 10 years, rather it was advantageous for them.
 
"Because, we'll get the fees of 5 years at a time and it will reduce our
official works. But, the problem is that we also have to realize VAT and AIT
alongside the trade license fee. If we can give relief the city corporation
from that issue, then we can certainly renew licenses for 5 years."

Taposh also opined that the government can make arrangements for providing
VAT and AIT separately adding that if the businessmen can provide the part of
the NBR separately, then there would remain no problem on the part of the
city corporation to provide license renewals for 5 years.

He assured of providing all possible help from his office in providing
solutions to the issues faced by the business community.
 
Commending MCCI's efforts in leading a dynamic private sector, the DSCC Mayor
mentioned that they had raised its overall revenue by ensuring good
governance without raising tax rates.

He believed that DSCC could provide the solutions to not only the
businesspeople, but also to all the citizens of the country with full support
from the MCCI and the business community.
 
MCCI president stated that ensuring ease of doing business was vital for a
country's business and investment. "The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the
pandemic made it even more important," he said.

Saiful suggested allowing such license issuance and renewals for 5-year
periods besides the regular one-year period. He believed that this would save
a lot of time and effort.

The MCCI leaders said in most cases, licenses are issued or renewed for a
year. Both processes are time-consuming. As a result, by the time businesses
arrange the required documents for the issuance or renewal of a particular
license, next year's license renewal becomes due. It becomes a year-long
practice requiring devoted resources.

MCCI vice president Habibullah N Karim said that if the mayor helped with the
5-year licenses/renewals, then its benefits could have a trickling effect in
other areas of ease of doing business too.

Member of the Board of Directors and the immediate past President Nihad Kabir
pointed out that a prerequisite to trade licenses for e-commerce companies
was to operate from commercial premises. She believed a waiver of this
condition would help many small e-commerce businesses.

Md. Shahidullah Azim, acting president of BGMEA, mentioned that the ready-
made garment sector was eyeing US$100 billion export volume by 2030, and 5-
year license periods would be welcomed very much by the sector.

MCCI senior vice president Kamran T. Rahman gave the vote of thanks.