The government has selected 147 businesspeople for awarding commercially important person status for their outstanding contribution to export in 2012, commerce ministry officials said. They said that the ministry would soon hand over the CIP (export) cards to the selected people and the CIPs would enjoy various facilities for the next one year.The ministry has already published a gazette notification containing the names of the businesspeople selected for the CIP award.
Of them, 101 will be awarded CIP status for their outstanding performance in export of products and the remaining 46 will be awarded the status for their contribution to trade in ex-officio category, according to the notification.
According to the CIP Export Policy-2013, the government awards the CIP status to the businesspeople from 22 sectors based on the export earnings, export market expansion and new market exploration and volume of export in the previous year.
Exporters who are loan defaulters and having unpaid taxes are not considered for awarding the status.
According to the policy, the ministry can award 188 businesspeople — 140 from product export category and 48 from ex-officio category — CIP status.
But the ministry never achieves the target as some contestants are left out as they cannot fulfil the conditions related to bank loan, tax payment and export earnings.
Commerce ministry officials, however, said that nine businesspeople had been selected for the status this year despite the fact that there were cases related to taxes against them pending in courts.
According to the policy, tax-related disputes do not bar businesspeople from getting the CIP status though the National Board of Revenue disallow them from getting the status of the highest taxpayers.
The policy says that a businessperson will be considered for the status if he/she earns $0.15 million by exporting agriculture products, agro-processed products, light engineering products, handicraft, plastic, melamine products, computer software, computer services and data processing.
For the remaining sectors, the target of export earnings is set at $1.5 million.
The CIPs will enjoy some privileges for the next one year. The privileges include a pass and a car sticker for entry into the secretariat, invitation to national programmes and functions of municipal corporations, seat reservations in government transports including Biman and rail, letter of introduction from the foreign ministry for travelling abroad.
They will also be allowed to use VIP lounge-2 at airports.
The businesspeople selected for CIP award in products export category are Sujit Kumar Bhattacharya, Ahsok Kumar Das, Selim Reza, Akunzi Mohammad Harunar Rashid and Durga Rani Das (for export of raw jute), Nazmul Haque, Mohammad Abdur Rahim, Mohammad Humayun Kabir and Kazi Nabil Ahmed (for export of jute products), Abdul Mazed and Tipu Sultan (for export of crust or finished leather), Aniruddha Kumar Ray, Mohammad Saiful Islam, Mohiuddin Ahmed Mahin, Mohammad Nazmul Hasan Sohel and Sheikh Momin Uddin (for export of leather products), Rezaul Haque, Towhidur Rahman, Kazi Shahed Ahmed, SM Mizanur Rahman, Masudur Rahman, Abdul Motaleb Khan and Mia Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman Rasel (for frozen foods), Abdus Salam Murshedy, Md Atiqul Islam, Syed Nurul Islam, Sajjadur Rahman Mridha, Abdur Razzak Sattar, Sharif Zahir, Enamul Haque Khan, Ahsan Kabir Khan, Azizul Islam, Owasim Rahman, Akkas Uddin Mollah and Itemad-Ud-Doulah (for readymade garment-woven), Gobinda Chandra Saha, Mohammad Mansur, Gokul Chandra Saha and Mohammad Shahab Uddin (for agriculture products), Mohammad Badrul Haider Chowdhury, Anjan Chowdhury and Abdul Motaleb (agro-processed products), Ashfaq-Ur-Rahman, Nazmul Hasan and Tapan Chowdhury (pharmaceuticals products), Shafiqul Alam Selim and Golam Ahsan (handicraft products), Prakash Ranjan Das Gupta (dehydrated, salted and other fishes), Abdus Samad Md Rafiqul Islam Noman, Masood Dawood Akbani and Mohammad Mohsin (specialized textile/home textile), Asadul Islam, M Kamal Uddin Chowdhury, Khalilur Rahman, Shahriar Ahmed, Jahangir Alam Khan, Atiqul Haque, Sultana Jahan, Shamsuzzaman, Samuel H Chowdhury, Abdul Khaleque Pathan, Gauhar Siraj Jamil, Kamal Uddin, Amol Poddar, Riaz Uddin Al Mamun, Syed AK Anwaruzzaman, Nabeel Ud Doulah, MA Jalil, Amir Hamza Sarker, Mohiuddin Faruki, Anju-Man-Ara Khanam, Abdul Kadir Mollah, Uttam Kumar Saha, Moklesur Rahman, Rana Shafiullah, Pritee Poddar and Iftekharul Hamid (RMG-knitwear), Nazmul Hasan and Khodeza Farhad Ruhi (ceramic tableware), Morshed Alam (plastic products), Mohammad Abdullah Zaber, Kutub Uddin Ahmed, Shakhawat Hossain, Abdullah Al Mahmud, Abdullah Md Zubair and Ferdous Ara (textile-fabrics), ASM Mohiuddin Monem (computer software), KM Rezaul Hasnat, Kamal Uddin Ahmed, Abdul Momin Mondal, Nurul Islam, Syed Nurul Islam, Mohammad Aman Ullah, Monir Hossain, Habib Mohammad Abdur Rouf, Alihussain Akberali, Abu Taher Razu, Ahmed Kamrul Islam Chowdhury, Salauddin Alamgir, Mohammad Abdul Awal and Rakibul Kabir (miscellaneous).
All 46 selected CIPs in ex-officio category are directors of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry representing different trade bodies and associations.
-With New Age input