Centre to reduce import duty to 0% on 4200 items to Bangladesh

Petrapole(Indo-Bangla border), Jun 19 (UNI) In a major concession to Bangladesh the Centre is planning to make the import duty of 4200 items to zero per cent by 2008, Union Minister of State for Commerce Jayram Ramesh said today.

Mr Ramesh said the concession is being taken over and above the concession as per the SAFTA which will reduce the import duty to 5 per cent by 2010. This will also help increase the imports from the nighbouring country, he added.

He said the concession is a major one since 75 per cent of exports of Bangladesh goes through India.

He said the concessions were given despite lack of reciprocation from Bangladesh.

However, he expressed his disappointment over the lack of progress of the propsed Tata project involving 3 billion dollars in Bangladesh.

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