Bangladesh

7 Chapter Q&A

    • Q&A1

      Q1.
      Since the summit of 2014, Japan signed an ODA loan project to Bangladesh and bidding has been carried out. Is it possible to enter the project office form in Bangladesh in the scheme of entering into ODA loan projects?
       
      A.
       In practice, it is possible to do business in project office form. In Bangladesh, you can do business activities if you register / apply as follows.
      · Opening a bank account
      · Acquisition of tax identification number (e-TIN)
      · Acquisition of business license
      · Registration of VAT (Value Added Tax Code)
       
        Normally, registration is carried out under the name of an entity registered with a commercial registration office or an entity registering branches to the investment agency, but if you are ordering for ODA loan projects, a business alliance agreement such as a consortium or association , If there is a contract with the related ministries concerning ODA loan, it is also possible to carry out the above procedure. In fact, Japanese companies and other foreign companies such as India and China also operate in the above scheme in some cases.
       
         As mentioned above, although it is practically possible form, we do not recommend doing business without a base in the project form. The reason is that the handling of bank accounts under the Central Bank Guidelines / Foreign Exchange Control Law is unclear. In the Bangladesh Central Bank Guidelines and the Foreign Exchange Control Law, there is no concrete description on the establishment of bank accounts for companies that have not registered or registered offices such as consortia. At present, especially aggressive regulation has not been done, but if central bank audits become severe in the future, there is a possibility that it may be subject to crackdown as a compliance violation.
       
         When establishing an entity, in Bangladesh you will choose one of the three: local affiliate, branch office and representative office. Because the representative office can not conduct sales activities, in the case of ODA loan projects where local construction projects, procurement of materials etc. are required, you will choose a branch office or overseas subsidiary. In the case of a branch office, it is considered that overseas remittance is possible also in the central bank guideline, so it is considered that profit return can be done relatively smoothly compared with a local corporation with various restrictions on overseas remittance. In either case, we can close the base after the project and remit the remaining funds to Japan, but the local corporation will have time to enter the company clearing procedure, the procedure to acquire the overseas remittance permission after the liquidation Often it is necessary.