Four commodities to face export ban

The new export policy will ban exports of rice, sugar, soybean oil and palm oil.
The four commodities have been included afresh in the list of exports to be banned in the draft export policy for 2012-15. The cabinet committee on economic affairs will discuss the new rules at today's meeting.
The draft also proposes setting up a databank under the 'national portal' containing detailed breakdown of the commodities produced and exported by Bangladesh, tariff rates in different countries, and conditions of rules of origin.
The draft policy said the databank would be set up in co-operation with government and nongovernmental organisations.
The database will be of help to exporters and importers, banks and non-bank financial institutions, National Board of Revenue and other stakeholders.
The new policy has expan-ded the sectors in which a certain portion of the export earnings can be spent under the retention quota, as well
The retention quota is the percentage of export earnings that an exporter can deposit in banks abroad.
Another highlight of the proposed draft is that to secure the 'stimulus incentive' for exporting non-traditional and new products the rate of value-added tax has to be a minimum of 40 percent.
In the existing policy it was 40 percent for the first two years and at least 50 per cent for the later years.