Mobile phone traders block roads at Karwan Bazar, Kuril

Unofficial mobile handset traders blocked roads in the Karwan Bazar and Kuril areas of the capital on Wednesday evening, protesting an upcoming ban on the import and sale of unauthorised handsets. 

The blockades created acute traffic gridlocks on the two crucial roads.

The protests began even though the two trade bodies representing the grey-market businessmen reached an agreement with government officials on realising their demands on Wednesday night. It was not immediately clear if the retail traders were aware of the agreement.

The traders are demanding reforms in the NEIR system, which would block the sale and import of copy, cloned, used and refurbished handsets from 16 December. They are also pressing for relaxed vendor enlistment rules, simplified import procedures, and a reduction in import tariffs for mobile handsets.

They also demanded the resignation of Faiz Ahmed Taiyeb, the chief adviser's special assistant at the Ministry of Posts Telecommunication and Information Technology.

The current NEIR framework would only serve a select group of big business houses while threatening the businesses of small traders and hiking prices for consumers, they allege.

‘Traders to suspend demos following govt concessions’

On Wednesday night, officials from the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology, the National Board of Revenue held talks with the traders’ representatives: the Mobile Phone Industry Owners Association of Bangladesh (MIOB), and the Bangladesh Mobile Business Community.

Satisfied with the outcome of the meeting, the trade body leaders agreed to withdraw their movement. The retailers would hopefully listen to their call for ending street demonstrations, they told reporters.

It was not clear whether the message reached the streets.

In the meeting, the government officials stuck to their previous decision of rolling out the NEIR system on 16 December, but agreed to give grey-market traders a three-month grace period.

During the grey period, the government would simplify rules and take other measures to alleviate the traders’ livelihood concerns, the officials said at the meeting.

Within three months, the government would simplify handset import procedures, ease the process for becoming official vendors, reduce import taxes, and regularise the unauthorised handsets that have already been imported but remain unsold at retail stores.