The National Board of Revenue has reduced the regulatory duty on import of refined and raw sugar with the aim of stabilising the sugar price on the local market.
According to a statement issued by the NBR on Wednesday, the revenue board reduced the regulatory duty on raw and refined sugar to 15 per cent from 30 per cent.
The revenue board said that global war and political unrest, massive devaluation of the Bangladeshi currency, recent student-les mass uprising and flood situation had increased the prices of some daily essentials, including baby food.
There is also a risk of the prices of those items going beyond the purchasing capacity of the common people, it said.
The cut in the regulatory duty by 15 per cent has reduced the customs duty on raw sugar to Tk聽11.18 a kilogram and the customs duty on refined sugar to Tk聽14.26 a kilogram at the import level.
The NBR said that the price per kilogram of sugar would come down at least by the same amount with the reduction in duty.
It also said that it was expected that the reduction in customs duty would discourage smuggling of sugar through illegal channels and increase the import through legal channels, thus boosting the collection of customs duty.
