NBR lifts import duty on sugar

Staff Reporter :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Sunday withdrew import duty on both raw and refined sugar in order to stabilize the market during the upcoming Ramzan.
In a notification, the customs authority removed per tonne Tk 3,000 specific duty on import of raw and Tk 6,000 on refined sugar with immediate effect.
At the same time, the NBR also reduced regulatory duty on import of sugar to 25 per cent from 30 per cent, according to the notification.
The reduced import duty benefit, which comes following a proposal from the Commerce Ministry to bring down the prices of sugar from its current record level of up to Tk 120 per kg, will remain effective until May 30 this year. After the reduction, the overall import cost of raw and refined sugar is expected to decline by Tk 6,500 and Tk 9,000 per tonne respectively, according to an estimate by the NBR.
City Group Director for Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, Biswajit Saha welcomed the move expressing hope that it would help control sugar price at retail level.
“The NBR’s policy support will reduce sugar price by minimum Tk 5 per kg at retail level. But, the consumers might have to wait until the arrivals of new consignments to avail the benefits,” he said. Generally, it takes at least 45 days to import sugar from Brazil and seven days to import from India. According to the Commerce Ministry, Bangladesh’s annual demand for sugar is 18-20 lakh tonnes, whereas the country locally produces only 30,000 tonnes. However, the demand for sugar is 1.5 lakh tonnes per month, which doubles in Ramzan.
The import of sugar during the July-December period of 2022 decreased by about 2.08 lakh tonnes compared to the same period in 2021, according to the Ministry.