Mobile Phone handset Manufacturing opportunity in Bangladesh

At presently there are 13 million mobile connections in Bangladesh. The handset market is about 0.8 million taka. For this reason Bangladesh government is giving the opportunity to establish a factory to give lower price handset to the customer. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Agency (BTRC) is preparing a draft guidelines to issue an agreement on this. The observation of the concerned people is Bangladesh government take this initiative for save foreign currency, to create new jobs and skilled manpower, to provide lower price handsets, to reduce import illegally and to export abroad. According to the draft guidelines- Manufacturers for the addition of handsets, production and marketing and vendor registration certificates will be divided into two categories. In the 'A' category, there should be a testing lab with its own standard layouts out of the handset manufacturer or its affiliating institution. Each lab should have the necessary testing facilities, so that they can produce advanced and international standard mobile phone handsets in Bangladesh. In the 'B' category own testing lab of the organization does not mandatory. However, they will be contracted with BTRC approved testing lab for standardized mobile phone verification.

In the draft and Vendor Enlistment, the fees for the category 'A' will be between Taka 10 to 50 lakh and renewal fee Taka 5 lakh. 'B' category charter fees Taka 5 to 20 lakh and renewal fee Tk 2 lakh. But in the case of two categories, annual VAT will be 15 percent. In addition, electronic waste management system should be made during production of manufactured handsets in the country. There should be adequate number of services and collection centers in each district. For ensuring international standard handset manufacturing in the country, about 5 percent of the handsets are tested by the internationally recognized testing and testing reports submitted to BTRC.

According to the positive handset market, about 2.5 to 3 million handsets are imported in a legitimate way. Besides, nearly 50 lakh handsets come in illegal way through tax evasion. Such information has come from a commission of BTRC. As a result, a large amount of foreign currency is going abroad. So, the government has taken this initiative to stop it and exploit the possibility of producing handsets locally.

According to BTRC, a large amount of foreign currency will be saved if we can produce handset locally. Creating new jobs market and increasing skilled technical knowledge manpower. In addition to reducing illegal import, government's revenue loss can be prevented as well. And local investors will get new investment field and the buyers will get the lower price mobile handset.

BTRC observed possibility of obtaining desired foreign investment. They demanded that tele-density (tele-density) will increase even if the handset is being manufactured in the country. Increasingly, the number of Internet users will also increase. Exchanging mobile phone handsets instead of import abroad will also be able to earn foreign currency.

Meanwhile, Walton has already applied for licenses to manufacture mobile phone handsets in Bangladesh. On the other hand SB Tel Enterprises has expressed interest in Progressive Manufacturing for mobile handsets. Therefore, the Commission has requested the Commission to recommend the Revenue Board to formulate a five-year plan and tax subsidy policy. Ministry of Finance has already issued declaration on import of import duty from abroad for import of machinery from abroad. 1% import duty has been set for 10% and complete knockdown (CKD) in the semi-knock-down (SD) system. Prior to bringing the spare parts of the mobile phone handset, 37 percent of the decimal 7 percent of the import duty was counted.