The National Board of Revenue reduced the regulatory duty on the import of refined and non-refined sugar to 15 per cent from 30 per cent in a bid to keep the sugar prices bearable and stable.
Following the reduction, import duty of non-refined sugar will reduce by Tk 11.18 per kg and import duty of refined sugar by Tk 14.26 per kg.
The NBR issued a press released on the matter on Wednesday.
It said taka deprecation, recent student-people movement and flood situations have triggered a hike in prices of essentials and baby foods, posing a risk of prices going out of people's purchasing capacity.
So, the NBR moved to keep the sugar prices bearable and stable through tax rebate and hoped that sugar prices would drop as much as duty was reduced. Besides, a tariff cut will discourage the smuggling of sugar and encourage more import, thus, more duty tax will be collected.
Prior to this, the Bangladesh Tariff Commission recommended reducing regulatory duty on sugar imports to keep the market prices stable ahead of the Ramadan.
Currently, sugar is taxed at Tk 3,000 per tonne. Besides, there was a regulatory duty of 30 per cent on imports, a VAT of 15 per cent and an advance tax of 7 per cent, thus, customers had to pay a total of Tk 43 in tax per kg. The regulatory duty was halved to 15 per cent now.
Bangladesh imported about 1.53 million tonnes of refined and non-refined sugar in the 2023-24 fiscal.