Dhaka: The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has withdrawn the import duty on all types of sugar to keep sugar prices normal in the market during the holy month of Ramadan. This decision will be effective soon.

NBR has issued a related notification on Sunday (February 26).

In the notification, importers have been given the facility to redeem refined and unrefined sugar free of duty till May 30.

The move has been taken to ensure uninterrupted sugar supply and price stability during Ramadan.

Earlier, customs tax was fixed at 6 thousand taka per ton of refined sugar and 3 thousand taka per ton of unrefined sugar. A 30 percent preservative duty was imposed on imports of raw sugar. Currently, customs duty is 3000 taka per ton of sugar, conservation duty is 30 percent, VAT is 15 percent, advance tax is 4 percent. In total, the import duty of sugar is about 61 percent.

Recently, in the fifth meeting of the task force regarding the review of commodity prices and market situation under the chairmanship of the senior secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, various issues including import, supply situation and market price were reviewed.

In that meeting, it was informed that in the last six months, about two lakh tons less sugar has been imported in the country. It emerged in the task force meeting that this import deficit has been created mainly due to the inability to open LCs due to the dollar crisis.

In this situation, the Ministry of Commerce recommended NBR to rationalize the duty rate on the import of the product to keep the price of sugar stable in the market during the upcoming Ramadan. A letter was also given to the organization about this. After that NBR lifted the duty on sugar import.

Bangladesh Time: 1910 hours, February 26, 2023
ZA/MJF