Sugar is going to be pricier as the government Wednesday fixed the tariff value of both crude and refined sugar and hiked the regulatory duty on both the items substantially.
Customs wing of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) issued two separate statutory regulatory orders (SROs) fixing the tariff value of crude and refined sugar and imposing 20 per cent regulatory duty (RD) on both.
From now on, importers of crude sugar will have to pay Tk 7,000 in RD per tonne while refined-sugar importers to pay Tk 10,500.
Until Wednesday, importers were required to pay Tk 2,000 and Tk 4,500 respectively in RD for per tonne of raw and refined sugar and there was no tariff value in place.
The RD has been raised 3.5 times higher for per-tonne crude sugar while 2.33 times for refined stuff.
Tariff value for raw sugar has been fixed at US$320 per tonne while it is $400 a tonne for refined sugar for assessment purpose at the customs point.
Prices of sugar, an essential commodity, would go up by nearly Tk 6.0 according to an initial calculation by the customs officials.
Md Eskander, proprietor of Nazma Store at city's Shantinagar Bazar, said currently sugar is selling at Tk 37-38 per kilogram on the local market.
He said price of sugar is going down the international market rates so price hike would leave a little impact on the market.
Market-insiders, however, have expressed the fear of a substantial hike in the price of the item following the imposition of the duty.
Biswajit Saha, General Manager of City Group, forecast a burden on consumers as price may escalate with the duty hike.
He observed that prices of sugar and salt were now almost equivalent while there had been a large gap between the prices of the two commodities earlier.
"The prices of sugar would be determined in line with the international market trend. Now it is selling at US$ 280-290 per tonne on that market," Mr Saha said.
The price is likely to increase within a short time, he added.
On keeping higher profit margins with the duty hike, he said there is a low profit margin as total production cost of the imported sugar is Tk 33-34 and it is selling at marginally higher prices.
In the current budget for fiscal year 2015-16, the NBR has incorporated an increased duty structure on import of sugar, making it effective from August, 2015, considering the holy month of Ramadan.
Later, it has withdrawn the provision through an order for fear of impact on prices of the essential during the month of Ramadan.
According to the Ministry of Industries, there is some 140,000 tonnes of sugar unsold in the government-owned sugar mills.
There was a strong recommendation from the ministry for increasing import tax on sugar to avert a market glut, customs officials said.
The country's annual demand for sugar is 1.4 million tonnes. State-run mills are able to supply 150,000 tonnes, leaving a huge deficit.
Major importers of sugar are City Group, Deshbandhu Group, S Alam Group, Meghna Group, United Refinery and Abdul Monem Group.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
