The National Board of Revenue (NBR) today withdrew import duty on both raw and refined sugar in order to enable consumers to get the sweetener at reduced rates.

In a notification, the customs authority withdrew Tk 3,000 specific duty on import of raw and Tk 6,000 on refined sugar per tonne with immediate effect.

At the same time, the NBR also reduced regulatory duty on import of sugar to 25 per cent from 30 per cent, according to the notification.

The reduced import benefit, which comes following a proposal from the commerce ministry to bring down the prices of sugar from its current record level of up to Tk 120 per kilogramme, will remain effective until May 30 this year.

After the reduction, the overall import cost of raw and refined sugar is expected to decline by Tk 6,500 and Tk 9,000 per tonne respectively, according to an estimate by the NBR.