Remove rice import duty: Tariff commission
The Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) has requested the government to temporarily withdraw import duty on rice to increase supply and, in turn, contain the price of this staple food in the local markets.
The BTTC sent a report to the commerce ministry, food ministry, and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) today in this regard.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, food inflation has remained above 10 percent for six consecutive months since April.
Although prices of fine rice remained unchanged over the last month, medium and coarse varieties, which are consumed the most, saw a 1.74 percent and 1.9 percent increase respectively over the same period, the BTTC report said.
The hike can be attributed to supply shocks caused by back-to-back floods and inclement weather, damaging standing paddy crops across the country.
According to data from the Department of Agricultural Extension, two recent floods between August 16 to October 15 disrupted the production of 8.39 lakh tonnes of rice.
On October 20, the NBR reduced the import duty on rice to 25 percent from 62.5 percent to encourage imports and increase supply in the local markets.
The NBR said that the duty cut would help lower the import cost by Tk 14.4 per kilogramme.
However, after the duty cut, importers ordered only 26 tonnes of rice so far, the BTTC report mentioned.
Amid this situation, necessary rice imports will only be encouraged if the duties are exempted as part of efforts to stabilise the market prices, the BTTC report said.
The report also said local producers are unlikely to suffer if rice is imported at international prices as it will be cost more than locally grown rice.
Bangladesh needs about 3.7 to 3.9 crore tonnes of rice annually, most of which is met through domestic production, according to the BTTC report.
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