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BRAHMANBARIA, March 9: A number of the district's brickfield owners have long been depriving the government by not paying the licence fee, value added tax (VAT) and commercial land development tax.
Some owners are also defying the government ban on use of firewood in their brickfields, ceaselessly burning them in their kilns. This illegal use of firewood is posing a serious threat to nature and the environment.
The use of firewood in the kilns has been prohibited as per brick burning control ordinance of 1992 which if violated carries a penalty of 10 years rigorous imprisonment or a fine of Tk 50,000.
But in utter defiance of the government rule, most of the brickfield owners in the district, have long been engaged in using firewood instead of other alternatives like gas or coal to fire their bricks.
They procure the firewood with the help of their agents, which causes untimely destruction of many trees in the rural areas.
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