Finance minister corrects ‘mistake’ on imposing extra import duties on sugar

A ‘mistaken’ proposal in the proposed national budget seeking to hike import tax on sugar has been amended.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith drew Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury’s attention to the correction of the mistake in his written budget speech, read out in Parliament on Monday.

He presented a nearly Tk 3 trillion budget on June 4 but had made no mention of raising import tax on sugar.

However, at the end of his written speech, a chart showed hiking unrefined sugar import tax to Tk 4,000 from Tk 2,000 and Tk 8,000 for refined sugar from Tk 4,500 per metric tonne.

It said the new rate would be effective from Aug 1.

At a post-budget media conference, National Board of Revenue Chairman Md Nojibur Rahman said it was “printed mistakenly”.

He said the NBR would talk to the Parliament Secretariat and amend the error before passing the budget, and that it would find no place in the finance bill.

On Monday, Muhith said they had considered various proposals on the tax but decided against it.

“The current rate will be in effect,” he said.

He said the part mentioning the hiked sugar import tax had to be deleted from the documents.

“There’s nothing to discuss on this matter,” the minister said. “I request you to strike it out.”