Poultry traders seek withdrawal of 5.0pc RD on soybean oil cake
FE Report | Thursday, 14 June 2018
Poultry traders have called on the government to withdraw the proposed 5.0 per cent regulatory duty (RD) on the import of soybean oil cake, an ingredient of poultry feed.
They also demanded withdrawal of the existing 5.0 per cent advance income tax (AIT) on maize import in the next budget for fiscal year (FY) 2018-19.
The Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council (BPICC), an umbrella platform of the poultry entrepreneurs, placed the demands in a statement on Wednesday.
BPICC president Moshiur Rahman said the domestic demand for soybean oil cake is 1.6 million metric tonnes and, but only 50 per cent of the demand is met by locally produced soya cake.
The remaining 0.8 million soya cake is imported from SAARC countries, the USA and Brazil, he added.
The government imposed 10 per cent customs duty (CD) on the import of soybean oil cake in FY 2017-18.
In the proposed budget for FY 2018-19, the Finance Minister withdrew the CD and imposed RD on the product.
However, feed manufacturers enjoy duty-free import of soybean oil cake from SAARC countries due to the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, he said.
But they will now have to pay the 5.0 per cent RD on soybean oil cake import even from the SAARC countries, Moshiur said.
The BPICC also urged the government to withdraw the 5.0 per cent AIT on maize, one of the major poultry feed ingredient, to safeguard the sector.
They also demand withdrawal of 5.0 per cent AIT on limestone, dl/l methionine, L-lysine, fish oil, Di-calcium phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, choline chloride, vegetable fats, poultry vaccine, L-theanine, enzyme, sodium bicarbonate and soya protein concentrate.