Bangladesh-based Crown Cement has decided to reduce the salaries and other benefits of its employees by 20.5 per cent as it attributes an unprecedented loss in the current financial year to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the employees in the sales department of the company will see a 4.4 per cent increase in their salaries, according to an anonymous official of the cement company as reported in the Daily Sun newspaper.

He also said that the cement industry has started to feel the impact of the added three per cent minimum tax imposed on the import value of raw materials since 1 July 2019. Crown Cement incurred a loss of BDT230m (US$2.7m) in the 9MFY19-20 due to the tax measure and the impact of the pandemic.