Bangladesh Garment Accessories and Packaging Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGAPMEA), a platform of backward linkage industries crucial for the apparel industry, urged the government to reduce source tax to 25 per cent and corporate tax to 12 per cent in next fiscal. Currently, apparel accessories makers in the country have to pay 0.5 per cent source tax and 32.5 per cent corporate tax.

As per Abdul Kader Khan, President, BGAPMEA, the pandemic has severely impacted the country's apparel sector and as a backward linkage industry, the accessories industry has also suffered. The industry suffers from fund scarcity in running factories. Moreover, it did not get the desired funds from the government's stimulus package offered for the apparel sector to pay workers' wages, Khan said.

Since the last national budget, garment exporters enjoy 12 per cent corporate tax, which is 10 per cent for apparel manufacturers with certified green factories. But the accessories exporters have to pay 32.5 per cent corporate tax. As per BGAPMEA data, there are more than 1,700 small and medium accessories and packaging makers, who are capable of providing 95 per cent of the demand for accessories products to the country’s $28 billion apparel industry and other export-oriented packing industries, including frozen foods and pharmaceuticals.