The government has decided to review the existing import duties on raw and refined sugar following a decline in the prices of the item in the international market.
The government high-ups will sit Thursday in the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to review the existing import duties on both raw and refined sugar, officials said.
Representatives of the ministries of commerce, industries, the Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC) and the NBR would discuss the issue.
The government has kept import duties on sugar unchanged since 2015.
Currently, import duty (specific duty) of raw sugar is Tk 2,000 and refined sugar Tk 4,500 per tonne.
However, 20 per cent Regulatory Duty (RD) is applicable to the import duty of sugar.
A senior NBR official said the step has been taken to review the international price of sugar so that import duties of the commodity can be revised upward after proposal from the state-run Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC).
The corporation under the ministry of industries claimed that the survival of the local sugar mills was at stake due to the increase in production cost of the item, he said.
In 2015, the NBR imposed 20 per cent regulatory tax on raw and refined sugar in order to prevent the local sugar mills from incurring losses.
Talking to the FE, BSFIC chairman AKM Delwar Hossain said price of sugar is one of the lowest in Bangladesh.
"Due to cheaper prices, the farmers are becoming discouraged to grow sugarcane. The government has increased prices of sugarcane in three phases," Mr Hossain said.
TCB data showed that sugar price in the local market dropped by 9.48 per cent year-on-year to Tk 50-Tk 55 per kilogramme on September 2, 2018 from Tk 56-Tk 60 per kg a year ago.
The corporation chairman said some 50,000 tonnes of sugar produced by local mills remain unsold.
World sugar prices fell to US$ 0.29 per kg in the first quarter of 2018 from $0.43 a kilogram from the same period a year ago, according to World Bank Commodities Price Data.
The international price of the essential commodity further dropped to $ 0.27 in May, 2018, the data showed.
BSFIC chairman said the government has increased prices of sugarcane to Tk 350 per quintal from Tk 250 following increase in production cost of the crop.
"The local sugar mills will not be able to survive unless the government adjusts the sugar price upward," he said.
He termed the current price of sugar 'unjustified' in the local market.
In 2011, the price of per kg sugar in the local market shot up to over k 60 per kg before declining in recent times, he said.
The state-owned BSFIC runs 15 sugar mills.
Industry insiders said that sugar produced by local mills remained unsold as production cost is much higher than that of the imported cost of the commodity.
In February last, neighbouring country India also raised its import duty of sugar to100 per cent to curb its cheap import and ensure remunerative prices to the farmers.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) of that country increased the import duty for importing all types of sugar, including raw, refined and white sugar.
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