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Decision to investigate causes of rod price hike PDF Print E-mail
Saturday, 19 April 2008

The government Thursday decided to form a probe committee to unveil the causes of abnormal price rises of MS rod on the local market which hit hard country''s construction industry, reports UNB.

An emergency meeting with Commerce Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman at the Commerce Ministry took the decision and directed the committee to report its findings by April 25.

The Commerce Ministry convened the meeting against the backdrop of price spiral of steel products where leaders of steel manufacturers, real estate developers and other government agencies like NBR, port authorities were also present.

The meeting also made a number of decisions in order to make the sector more competitive.
 
The decisions include widening the scope of importing scrap ship, undertaking necessary measure to keep import of finished rod of 60 grade open and to fix reasonable rates of duty by determining the differentials between the duty structures for re-rolling mills and ship-breaking industries.

Commerce Secretary Firoj Ahmed and Additional Secretary Golam Mostakin, TCB chairman Mohammad Ziaul Islam, NBR member M Farid Uddin, President of Bangladesh Re-rolling Mills Association Ali Hossain and REHAB president Mokarram Hossain were, among others, present at the meeting.

The Commerce Ministry will again sit with the stakeholders of steel and construction sectors on April 25 where the big players in the sector will be asked to be present.

After the meeting, Commerce Advisor Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman told reporters that the enforcement of the VAT law would provide the scope to know the stock position of any business.

"So far, such law was not been enforced, but now we have decided to enforce it under the legal coverage to find out actual reasons and the persons responsible for the abnormal price escalation," he said. "But the spirit behind the decision is not to punish anybody," he added.
 
"The decision of importing 60-grade MS rod will create huge investment opportunity in the country''s ship-scrap industries," Zillur further said.

Now the ship-crap business is confined within 22 business houses in the country, only 10 of whom are active who have scope to run syndicated business.
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