The cabinet 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final approval to the proposed Bangladesh Tariff Commission (Amendment) Act-2019 amending the country’s main tariff law originally enacted in 1973 in its weekly meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at the PMO.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 act (proposed) brought four major changes in the existing law (Bangladesh Tariff Commission Act, 1992). 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.
Hence, the act proposed renaming of the Bangladesh Tariff Commission as Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission.
The tariff law was originally enacted as a presidential order in 1973, later to be turned into an act in 1992 but the demands of the global and domestic trading systems required its amendment.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 commission was established in 1973 as a government office through a resolution and later in 1992, the commission through Bangladesh Tariff Commission Act-1992 was established as a statutory body.
