Tariff Commission law gets cabinet nod
The cabinet yesterday gave its final approval to the proposed Bangladesh Tariff Commission (Amendment) Act-2019, amending the country’s main tariff law -- originally enacted in 1973 -- in its weekly meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at the PMO.
“The (proposed) act brought four major changes in the existing law (Bangladesh Tariff Commission Act, 1992),” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told a press briefing at the Secretariat after the meeting.
He said the law suggested inclusion of the word “trade” in its title and sought to widen its purview, obligate the commission employees to maintain secrecy of their functions and kept provisions of hiring consultants and research associates on ad hoc basis.
Alam said the tariff law originally was enacted as a presidential order in 1973, later to be turned into an act in 1992, but the demands of the global and domestic trading systems required its amendment.
“The existing (tariff) law has many limitations,” the top government bureaucrat said.
PROBE REPORT ON BIMAN PILOT SUBMITTED
Replying to a query, the cabinet secretary said on Sunday, they received the report of the four-member probe committee formed to investigate into the travelling of a Biman Bangladesh Airlines pilot without passport to Qatar and negligence of immigration officials at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in this regard.
“We are yet to open the report formally. To the best of my knowledge, it has five to seven recommendations which are mainly generic, such as if any passenger or crew wants to cross immigration, they have to go through immigration procedure,” he continued.
On June 5, Biman’s pilot Captain Fazal Mahmud Chowdhury was detained by the immigration authority at Doha Hamad International Airport in Qatar for travelling without passport.
The government on June 7 formed a four-member inter-ministerial committee to probe the incident.
The cabinet also extended congratulations as Bangladesh was elected a member of Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of United Nations for 2020-2022 from Asia-Pacific region, by securing 181 votes out of 191, he said.
It also adopted a condolence motion at the demise of renowned theatre personality and Language Movement activist Prof Momtazuddin Ahmed.
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