Bangladesh's National Board of Revenue (NBR) has issued a new statutory regulatory order (SRO) to make it easier for local pesticide manufacturers to import raw materials and clear them at port, part of a government aim to raise domestic production and cut imports. But manufacturers say the agriculture ministry and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) are still following the old rule, and they are paying the price.
Manufacturers complain that obtaining a separate no-objection certificate (NOC) for every consignment wastes time and money and adds red tape. Once raw material reaches Chattogram port, a firm must apply to the DAE, the ministry must approve, an inquiry committee is formed and the factory is inspected on site before a certificate is issued. The process takes a long time and delays clearance at the port.
The procedure used to follow SRO No. 199-Law/2025/21/Customs. The NBR later amended it and issued SRO No. 156-Law/2026/Customs. Under the new order a separate certificate is not needed for each consignment: a single certificate issued to the manufacturer allows several later shipments to be cleared.
KSM Mustafizur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Agrochemical Manufacturers Association (BAMA), said the ministry and the DAE check a factory, its production capacity and the required conditions before granting a manufacturing licence. Requiring a fresh factory inspection and certificate every time a shipment arrives is therefore unreasonable, he said. Officials may inspect factories at any time of year and the industry has no objection to that, he said, but a new application and inquiry for every consignment is not acceptable.
He said the association has applied to the ministry several times without any effective response and has instead been told to contact the DAE. The long process is raising business costs and discouraging investors, he said, and direct importers of finished pesticides do not have to go through the same procedure. He called for local manufacturers to be given the support they need so that import dependence can be reduced.
Enayet-E-Rabbi, acting director of the DAE's plant protection wing, said the department generally acts on the ministry's instructions. No instruction has yet come from the ministry to issue clearances under the new SRO, so the department is working under the old one, he said, and will follow the new order as soon as it is instructed to.
This report is based on an Agricare24 desk report drawn from the Dainik Sokaler Somoy.
Source: Agricare24
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