Sugar price cut keeping Ramzan in mind

ANIS ALAMGIR

To keep the sugar price stable in the local market during the coming Ramzan month, the government has withdrawn import tax on raw sugar and cut half of the import tax for refined sugar from the existing Tk four thousand to two thousand per MT. According to the new order, businessmen can import sugar till September 15, 2010 under the new import tax. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) had issued an order in this regard on July 5 which will be applicable from July 1, 2010. Earlier, on June 29, in his concluding speech on the budget in the parliament, finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhit gave the assurance that he would take the initiative to cut the import duty of sugar during the period of Ramzan. Officials of the NBR hoped that the sugar price would be durable during Ramzan time for the new tax fixation on sugar. They were hopeful that the people would benefit from this decision directly or indirectly. On the other hand, talking to The Independent, the president of the Bangladesh Sugar Refiners Association, Fazlur Rahman, said that sugar price has been stable for a long time. He viewed that the price of sugar in the local market would be stable or instable depending upon both government decisions and the international market. He said that the purchase cost of sugar available in the local market was higher than in the current international market. "When we imported it was US $ 720 per tonne and now it is US $ 500 per tonne in the foreign market," he said. NBR sources said that till March this year, the country has imported 11.50 lakh MT sugar, out of which 10.50 lakh MT were raw and the rest were refined. 7-7-2010 the independent