The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has withdrawn all import and regulatory duties on rice. This decision is expected to reduce the price of rice by at least Tk9.60 per kg.

NBR issued a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) on Thursday (October 31) in this regard.

The existing 15 percent import duty and 5 percent regulatory duty on rice will be completely abolished, according to a press release issued by the NBR on Friday (November 1). As a result, the total import duty on rice will be reduced from 25 percent to 2 percent.

Earlier, import duty was reduced from 62.5 percent to 25 percent to reduce the price of rice. However, the result was not as expected.

NBR was requested by the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) to waive import duty. NBR took this decision after that.

The NBR claims that the import and control duty waiver will stabilize the price of rice and make it more accessible to the common consumer. This move will increase rice supply and keep prices affordable in the future; So that the necessary food items are easily available to the consumers.