Dhaka, Dec. 1 -- The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has made it mandatory from January for bonded warehouse licence holders to use the Customs Bond Management System (CBMS) to obtain Utilisation Permission (UP) for duty-free imports of raw materials.

On Monday, the revenue authority issued a statement saying the measure is being introduced to make the country's bond management "modern, transparent and technology-driven".

Currently, bonded warehouse licence holders are provided online services through 24 CBMS modules under three customs bond commissionerates.

The system's usage, however, has not reached the "desired level" because it was not compulsory, the NBR said.

For duty-free import of raw materials, exporters holding bonded ware...