Policy on cards for apparel buying houses

The government is set to frame a policy to bring in discipline and ensure accountability among the buying houses in the export-oriented apparel industry. The commerce ministry has already prepared a draft that seeks to get buying houses registered with the Export Promotion Bureau. Without registration with the EPB, no buying house will be able to hand over letters of credit on behalf of buyers to manufacturers, according to the draft, which was sent to stakeholders for vetting last month. “This is an initial draft. Our spirit is to expand our export market by creating a good reputation of our sector,” said Md Abdur Rahim Khan, deputy chief at the commerce ministry’s textile cell. The move comes after some incidents of fraudulence by some buying houses. Last year, 26 Bangladeshi garment exporters became victims after two local garment buying houses, Vanguard and ASM Apparels, placed work orders on behalf of the “importer” Y&X, saying that the latter is owned by a Bangladeshi-born British citizen named Manjur Billah.

The duo offered higher prices on the condition that the raw materials have to be bought from select textile factories in China.

The deception got here to light after the first batch of consignments was left unclaimed for over one month at a UK port.

Until now, there has been no coverage on shopping for houses and there is no controlling authority for them, Khan said.

“We have been demanding a coverage for the last 10 years to carry in self-discipline in the sector,” stated Kazi Iftaquer Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Garment Buying House Association, which represents four hundred buying houses.

Apart from BGBA members, there are many shopping for houses running in the country, the complete of which would come to 1,500, he said.

A policy would be instrumental in resolving troubles or disputes that appear among buyers, buying houses and exporters.

As per the draft policy, buying homes and garb manufacturers will have to raise out commercial enterprise primarily based on contracts and ship the copies of contracts to their respective organisations.

Buying houses will have to hold transparency in deciding expenditures between shoppers and exporters, according to the draft.

After handing over the letters of credits to exporters on behalf of buyers, shopping for houses will have to continue to raise out responsibilities till exporters get payment, it said.

The draft coverage said shopping for homes or shopping for retailers will have to ship statements of order placement to the BGBA each three months. And the BGBA will ship the attested copies of statements to the EPB and the Bangladesh Bank.

If any dispute arises between the export-oriented firm and the buying house, they can practice to the arbitration committee of representative organisations, who would then settle the depend within four weeks, said the draft policy.

The draft policy seeks to form a panel to screen the activities of buying houses. The panel will inform the commerce ministry and propose actions if it finds involvement of any buying residence in export by way of violating rules.

Khan stated the draft coverage will get a structure in one or two months.