Big cut in customs duty on rice import in Bangladesh

22-Oct-2024 02:01 PM

Dhaka. The Finance Ministry of Bangladesh has made a huge cut of 37 percent in the customs duty rate on rice import through a gazette notification issued on October 20.

Under this, the prevailing rate of import duty on rice has been reduced from 25 percent to 15 percent and regulatory duty from 25 percent to 5 percent.

Apart from this, the advance tax of 5 percent on rice has been abolished. In this way, earlier there was a total tax of 55 percent on rice import, which has now been reduced to 20 percent.

This decision of the government has been taken keeping in mind the damage to crops due to the terrible and devastating floods in Bangladesh and the huge increase in food inflation.

Due to this flood, the production of 10.87 lakh tonnes of rice was destroyed, which mainly includes Aman rice. Due to heavy damage to key commodities and disruption in the supply chain, the prices of various essential commodities in Bangladesh are rising rapidly, including rice.

In view of the adverse situation, the government has started efforts to import 5 lakh tonnes of rice and soon private traders are also likely to be allowed to import it to help ensure internal food security. Compared to last month, the price of rice has increased by 5-6 taka per kg, while it is expected to increase further.

The government currently has a stock of about 12 lakh tonnes of rice, but it will gradually decrease. It is worth mentioning that in Bangladesh, government rice is made available to one crore families at subsidized prices every month through the OMS program.

The Food Ministry has been authorized to procure rice from government to government. The average and Aman paddy crops have suffered tremendous damage due to severe floods in 14 districts of Bangladesh.

If private traders do not get permission to import rice, its domestic market price may increase rapidly.