Rice import duty doubled to protect local producers

The National Board of Revenue on Tuesday doubled the duty on import of rice to 20 per cent by imposing 10 per cent regulatory duty for ensuring fair price for local farmers.
The NBR issued a statutory regulatory order on the day in this regard which came into effect from December 7.
According to the SRO, 10 per cent RD will be applicable on import of husked (brown) rice, fortified rice kernels, semi-milled or wholly-milled rice whether or not polished or glazed and broken rice.
Earlier in May, the revenue board imposed 10 per cent RD on import of rice, which later was transformed into customs duty during budget, mainly to discourage rice import from neighbouring India.
Local rice producers were suffering due to fall in the price of rice on the domestic market due to excessive import mainly from India taking the advantage of zero duty on the item.
But the situation did not improve even after imposition of duty as traders continued to import rice causing further fall of rice price on the domestic market.
The traders imported 2.03 lakh tonnes of rice between July 1 and December 6 this year, according to the food ministry data.
In the last financial year 2014-2015, private traders imported 14.90 lakh tonnes of rice, the data showed.
In this situation, the food ministry last month requested the finance ministry for doubling rice import duty before aman season to protect local farmers against fall of rice price because of import and increased domestic production.
Officials said that the ministry apprehended that the price of rice might fall further in upcoming aman procurement season to be started around December 15, if the import duty was not hiked.
The government set a target of procuring 2 lakh tonnes of rice from farmers at Tk 31 a kg in the upcoming aman procurement season.
Currently, the government does not import rice.

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