National Board of Revenue has decided to reintroduce 20% supplementary duty on the import of tea.
The duty was scrapped in the current fiscal’s budget, but the authorities are now taking steps to reinstate the duty after the demand of Bangladesh Tea Association (BTA).
Ministry of Commerce recommended the reinstatement, said an NBR official. With the bringing back of supplementary duty, the total import duty of tea will be 81%.
BTA recently made the demand to the commerce ministry and the NBR for the protection of local product discouraging import. It placed eight-point proposals to the commerce ministry and revenue body.
According to the local producers, they are being deprived of fair prices as almost half the total tea remain unsold in the auctions.
They think this is because of supply of imported tea in the local market.
Supplementary duty cut was helping the tea importers bring substandard product from foreign sources, beating the local industry, they said.
BTA demands also include cash incentive, allocation of Tk120 crore as workers welfare loan for next five years, cut of bank interest rate for local production and development of the sector and uninterrupted power and gas supplies to the gardens.
The domestic demand has risen, but the local production could still meet that demand, said BTA.
NBR has already prepared a proposal in this regard and will be sent soon to the finance minister for approval, said an official.
According to the BTA statistics, Bangladesh locally produce 6.40 lakh kilogram of tea against the demand of 5.6 lakh kg.