The New Nation - Internet Edition

Business Report

The government has selected 64 leading businessmen and chamber leaders to award them with the status of commercially important persons (CIPs) for 2007 on exports and trade, sources at the National Board of Revenue (NBR) said.

The persons will receive the CIP status on the basis of export performance and annual business turnover.

A high official at MBR said they had given approval to 64 CIPs at a cabinet division meeting on Tuesday.

After getting approval of the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Commerce and National Board of Revenue, the Cabinet Division at its meeting finalised the list of CIPs.

The selection authority of the government has taken clearance from the income tax, duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) departments of the NBR before the selection of the CIPs.

"The Ministry of Commerce with the help of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) has prepared the list of those important persons on the basis of their export performance and contribution to the in economy," a commerce ministry source said.

The export sectors are knit and woven garments, frozen foods and shrimps, leather goods, raw jute and jute goods, agro-processing products, specialised and home textile, plastic goods and melamine.

On CIP trade, the selection authorities have decided that chiefs of the chamber bodies will receive the status by dint of their positions.

Selection procedure of the major chamber leaders covers all the criteria that are required for selecting CIPs, sources said.

Trade CIPs for 2007 are Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) president Mir Nasir Hossain and Directors Aftab-ul-Islam, Abul Kashem Ahmed, Md Abdul Wahed, Jahangir Akhand Selim, Md Samsul Alam, Kamran Tanvirur Rahman, Abdur Razzak, Khurshid Ali Mollah, Akhtaruzzaman Monju, Md Giasuddin Chowdhury and MA Awal.

From miscellaneous category, three persons have been selected. They are Mirza Salman Ispahani, Md Jasim Uddin and Saiful Islam.

On export-sector, raw jute exporters Sarif Md Fazlur Rahman and Selim Reza have been selected for the CIP. From Jute goods exporters the selected persons are Md Humayun Kabir, Md Abdur Rahim, Kazi Rezaul Hasan, while Md Saiful Islam and Firoza Begum have been selected from leather goods exporters.

Ten CIPs have been selected from frozen foods exporting sector. They are Iqbal Ahmed, Md Touhidur Rahman, Syed Abu Afsar, Md Rezaul Huq, Kazi Shahed Ahmed, Mia Md Abdus Salam, Yesmin Khan, Shahana Sultana.

Anisur Rahman Sinha, Md Azizul Islam, M Anwarul Azim, Asif Ibrahim and Saiful Islam have been selected from readymade garment (woven) sector in individual category. Enamul Huq Khan has been named from woven in group category.

From agro-based products sector, Gobinda Chandra Saha, Md Sal1ab Uddin, Gokul Chandra Shaha and agroprocessing products exporter Md Suja Uddin have been selected.

Dehydrated Salt and other fish exporter Prakash Ranjan Das Gupta will also get the status followed by Md Nurul Islam and Firoz Ali Fakhri from specialised textile sector.

From Knitwear sector 10 persons have been selected for CIP status followed by one from ceramic tableware and one each from plastic goods and melamine exporters