Govt mulls import ban thru' landports, duty hike
Monday, 13 August 2007
In a bid to sell out piled-up local produce, government authorities are weighing an option for temporarily stopping the import of sugar through all landports and raising the import duty, reports UNB.
Official sources said the Ministry of Commerce in a letter to the Internal Resources Division (IRD) proposed the restrictive measures, as there has been a sugar glut in the country's sugar mills.
"Huge quantities of locally produced sugar still remain unsold in the godowns across the country and a good amount of sugar is being destroyed due to floods and rains," it is stated in the letter.
The ministry proposed to increase the import duty on sugar from Tk 4000 to Tk 5000 per tonne.
It also proposed to increase the duty on white sugar from Tk 5000 to Tk 10,000 per tonne.
In proposing an embargo on the import of sugar from India, the ministry noted that the price of sugar on the international market decreased nowadays. And "for that the locally produced sugar remained unsold in the godowns for a long time, forcing the government sugar mills to count huge amounts of loss."
On the other hand, the private sugar mills association is repeatedly urging the government to increase the import duty on sugar to have a level playing field for them.
Sugar prices started going down in the first part of the last year, and the slump turned for the worst just before the last Ramadan following an SRO.
According to TCB data, sugar prices had been hiked by over 60 per cent in a year from a level of Tk 32-Tk 34 per kg in 2005. And suspicion was rife that the prices were jacked up, as high as Tk 65 a kilogramme, through syndication.
At that time, the BNP-led 4-party alliance government had blamed an overheated international market for the unusual price hike of the essential food item.
The country used to dependent on sugar imports as the local sugar production decreased to only 1.35 lakh tonnes against the total annual demand for 12 lakh tonnes.
Official sources said the Ministry of Commerce in a letter to the Internal Resources Division (IRD) proposed the restrictive measures, as there has been a sugar glut in the country's sugar mills.
"Huge quantities of locally produced sugar still remain unsold in the godowns across the country and a good amount of sugar is being destroyed due to floods and rains," it is stated in the letter.
The ministry proposed to increase the import duty on sugar from Tk 4000 to Tk 5000 per tonne.
It also proposed to increase the duty on white sugar from Tk 5000 to Tk 10,000 per tonne.
In proposing an embargo on the import of sugar from India, the ministry noted that the price of sugar on the international market decreased nowadays. And "for that the locally produced sugar remained unsold in the godowns for a long time, forcing the government sugar mills to count huge amounts of loss."
On the other hand, the private sugar mills association is repeatedly urging the government to increase the import duty on sugar to have a level playing field for them.
Sugar prices started going down in the first part of the last year, and the slump turned for the worst just before the last Ramadan following an SRO.
According to TCB data, sugar prices had been hiked by over 60 per cent in a year from a level of Tk 32-Tk 34 per kg in 2005. And suspicion was rife that the prices were jacked up, as high as Tk 65 a kilogramme, through syndication.
At that time, the BNP-led 4-party alliance government had blamed an overheated international market for the unusual price hike of the essential food item.
The country used to dependent on sugar imports as the local sugar production decreased to only 1.35 lakh tonnes against the total annual demand for 12 lakh tonnes.