The BGMEA demand was raised yesterday when a delegation led by its president Anwar-ul-Alam Chwodhury Parvez called on Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam at his office and submitted a 13-point demand to him.

The demands include tax holiday for the RMG sector, allocation of land for a fashion institute, establishment of a garments industrial park and rehabilitations of sick industries.

"The government would release Tk 120 crore cash incentives for the garments sector in the next budget," the finance adviser told journalists after the meeting.

"I have heard the demands and understood their arguments. I hope these would be reflected in the next budget," the adviser said.

The BGMEA president said,"We have sought policy supports from the government which would help the sector grow rapidly."

Pointing to the fact that Tk 262 crore cash incentives remained pending, he said,"We need financial assistance for rehabilitation of 270 sick garment factories, which had been sorted out from a total of 1400 sick factories earlier".

Besides, the bonding period should be extended to 24 months instead of existing 15 months, Parvez said.

The other members of the BGMEA delegation were vice presidents A B M Shamsuddin, Foisal Samad and Ferdous Parvez.

During the hour-long discussion, the BGMEA delegation also demanded waiver of conditions for continuous bond in case of knit, sweater and woven industries.

We also talked to the adviser regarding income tax measures, payment of advance tax and exemption of tax on dividend, Parvez said.

The BGMEA delegation also called on Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed at the BB office in the morning.

They demanded reduction in bank interest to10 per cent for the sector for sustaining in the global competitive market.

The other demands placed to the central bank chief include introduction of a system of contract, deferred payment and factoring without letter of credit in the interest of expansion of the sector.

The governor assured the BGMEA leaders that he would talk to the bankers about the recommendations of the garments leaders.

On the demand for soft loan at seven per cent interest for setting up effluent treatment plant (ETP), Dr Salehuddin assured them of taking initiative in this regard.